Analyze It!
On-Page Criteria for the Search Engines
Think like a search engine. It's trying to figure out what your page is about. It starts this process by looking for certain "on-page" hooks or hints. We call these "on-page criteria."
The placements of your page's Specific Keyword (and/or its derivatives) in your Body copy are the "direct hooks" for the search engine. These hooks directly tell the engine what the page is about.
After all, if "Anguilla beaches" does not appear on the page a few times, it could just as well be a page about "Szechuan restaurants."
Search engines today are sophisticated at recognizing the topic of a page. So while they need enough direct hooks (your Specific Keyword and/or its derivatives) to "get it," don't give them too many. They'll "feel" manipulated.
That said, your primary goal is to provide excellent content for your visitors (see Make Your Content PREsell!).
While writing that excellent content, use synonyms (e.g., "Szechuan cuisine"), related words and phrases ("Kung Pao chicken") and General Keywords ("Chinese food"), all of which help the search engines realize what the topic of this page is about.
In the example just above, you can see how synonyms, related words and General Keywords all contribute to "Szechuan restaurants." The content is obviously not talking about "Anguilla beaches," right?
Better still, this helps you rank not only for your Specific Keyword, but for other keywords, too (without even trying!).
And best of all, writing in this manner makes for "good reading" for your human reader.
As always, you have to please both audiences. Luckily, both engines and humans want the same thing, great content. Keyword placement ("on-page criteria") is merely "packaging your topic" to make sure the engines "get it."
Off-page criteria (e.g., inbound links) are important, too, of course. But your on-page "hooks" are still important.
Building an inbound links program and managing off-page criteria are not part of this discussion. That's for another day... DAY 7 of the Action Guide, supplemented by articles in the TNT HQ.
Some Specifics
Include your Specific Keyword at the beginning of the title and the H1 headline, and in the opening paragraph, if possible. You can place it a bit later if the title or content "reads" awkwardly for humans.
Keep the title to 65 characters or shorter, which makes it important to put the Specific Keyword at or close to the beginning, to ensure that the entire keyword can be seen by Google's users.
Use the Specific Keyword early in your first Text Block and also in the closing paragraph of your last Text Block.
Then weave your Specific Keyword (and/or its derivatives) throughout the rest of your text. This "scatter pattern" should look like an hourglass... more frequently at the top and bottom, and less frequently in the middle of the page.
Keep usage reasonable, though. The engines look for excessive use as a sign of "keyword spammers."
A good general guideline?
Include your Specific Keyword only as often as "good writing" dictates. To avoid sounding repetitious, mix in some common synonyms and words related to your Specific Keyword.
Start blending in your General Keywords, too, so that you can score for word combos (i.e., Specific Keyword + General Keyword).
Go through your MKL and make a note of the General Keywords with the highest demand and good relevance to your Specific Keyword (i.e., the ones that a searcher is most likely to associate with your Specific Keyword). For example...
If your page is about "Anguilla beaches," then "Anguilla" and "Caribbean" would be good General Keywords, but "travel" is too general.
You'll use "travel" without even trying, of course, in various parts of your site. On the other hand, "Caribbean," as a word related to Anguilla, will raise your relevance.
Use synonyms, related words and a derivative of your page's Specific Keyword (if your Specific Keyword is "boat," then "boating" and "boaters" and "boats" are derivatives).
The engines are smart enough to know that a synonym adds to your page's focus, contributing to the Specific Keyword's on-page criteria. And synonyms make the flow of your page more natural for your main target, human visitors.
Of course, if you "keep it real," you'll tend to do that naturally!
Bottom line? Proper Specific Keyword placement, together with smart selection and use of synonyms, related words and General Keywords, will not only satisfy both the search engines and human visitors.
It will increase the overall relevance of your page (and likely provide you with excellent ideas for content).
Do I Have to Pass Every Recommendation?
While your goal is to pass Analyze It!, it's not important to pass every recommendation. The SEs have become smarter, so some on-page criteria aren't as important as they were.
For example, it's still essential that you use your Specific Keyword in the Title, and important that you include it in the Description of your page (or a variant if the exact usage is awkward).
And put it in the file name and in the H1 headline to help the engines determine what your page is about.
Also sprinkle the Specific Keyword in the main body copy of the page itself (discussed above).
But having your keyword in the first 90 characters of text isn't essential for a good ranking. And having the keyword present an exact number of times on the page isn't important.
Analyze It! will still point these out, but don't jump linguistic hoops to "get it right" if the content of the page becomes awkward. Your human visitor is always more important!
Note: You do need to adjust your wording if Analyze It! tells you that you did not use the Specific Keyword at all in the body copy, or if you used it too many times (you could be accused of keyword-stuffing).
What Should You Do If Your Pages Don't Rank Highly at First?
Don't do what SEOers do. Do not spend a lot of time "tweaking" your pages to score higher. Why not?
Because it's far more important to create fresh original content and build a strong Web presence.