Forum Moderators: open
Inbound link text: 10 points.
title: 10 points
domain name: 7 points
large h1-h2 headings: 5 points
first sentence of first paragraph 5 points
path or filename: 4 points
proximity (multi kws): 4
beginning of a sentence 1.5 points
bold or italic text: 1 points
usage in text: 1 point
title attribute: 1 point
alt tag: .5 point
meta descrip: .5 points
meta keywords: .05 point
but proximity in a rough approximation in its dictionary usage regarding words in a webiste/seo factored environment is closeness of keywords together.
i.e. 'blue widgets' as oppossed to 'blue type of thing that is a widget', hence grouping kw's together for capturing 2-3 keyword terms regarding SERPS.
though to add too the mix, there are probably another hundred or so variables to take into account that would be sub variables, of those brett mentioned in the thread that you have referenced as well as some that are not. Get the basic's, keep reading here and light will shine itself upon u.
You'll hear some of us periodically talking about word order and proximity. That's referring to the order, or sequence that words are used in phrases and how close they are to each other. The two relate closely. You can have
widget history or
the widget in history
The first one has both words in the exact phrase, in the closest proximity to each other that's possible. In the second they're separated by what's called a stop word.
You can also have
the history of widgets
That's in a different order, it's in reverse this time - again separated by a stop word. Also, widget is plural, which is not the same thing, and relates to word stemming.
Stop words are supposedly ignored in search because they're common words, but it can make a difference when people look for exact phrases. Since use of exact phrases has significance in ranking, it's good to watch for "proximity" or closeness, and vary the number of occurrences. They should be used that way in page titles and in significant places on pages and in link text, but without excessive repetition.
For terms that are unfamiliar, you can generally look them up in the Glossary [searchengineworld.com], and also find additional past discussion in the Site Search [searchengineworld.com]. There have been some great discussions on word order and proximity, and there's always something new that comes up that's interesting.
