The importance of keyword density and meta tags

How important is keyword density when it comes to writing webcopy and Meta

[jjfossey]

I've heard and read varying reports on the importance of keywords and phrases when it comes to keyword density and Meta tags. Some folks have stated that it's important to place keywords as close to the top of the page in the source code as possible. This sounds like the placement of keywords itself is important to gaining higher page rankings. Other folks have stressed the importance of keyword density for gaining higher rankings. Still others insist that keywords are important for the Meta description and keyword tags. However, I have heard the opposite of all this. Some people say that 'content is king' (which I happen to agree with) and that the tags you should really concentrate on optimizing is the title tag in the header. Everything else is just a waste of time.

So who's right? Or is there a little bit of truth to both sides? Can someone give some details on this and offer some solid advice on what to concentrate on and why?

How should keywords really be used in terms of SEO? Thanks.

[BigDave]

To start with, the keyword meta tag is useless, don't bother.

For Yahoo and MSN the answer to all your questions is different than with Google. Google is mach farther along in figuring out what a page is about without you having to force feed it your keywords. Google can give you the most traffic, by far, but with a new website you are likely to get more traffic from Y! and MSN than Google.

With Google, the there are three things that I consider the most important. Internal links from navigation, title tag, and building the theme of the page.

Good navigation give you a start on your anchor text that can at times be more important than external anchor text. It spreads out the PR and other factors from deep links. Probably the most important, it helps your users.

Title tag is what your page is about. Don't keyword stuff it, but include the primary keyword/phrase because it is the correct thing to do. Google knows what other keywords are related to your primary keyword.

Building the theme of the page requires using words and language that is related to the primary keyword. If it is a page about a specific engine, words like "crankshaft" and "piston" do not dilute your page, Google has figured out that they are related and they enhance your page.

Building the theme also enhances long-tail searches, which build your traffic volume much faster when you start out than trying and failing to win that coveted "money keyword". Then in the long run, those long-tail searches help you out with your ranking on the big keywords without even trying.