How many key phrases per site?

Number of keywords per site?

[chiesa]

I have a site with 60 pages.
Each page has different content and completely different key-phrases. I am using about 100 key phrases per page with the most important ones first. This gives my site about 6000 key phrases. Each page has body content that supports the key phrases.
Is this too many for the site as a whole - most of the key phrases are 3 or 4 words and are quite unique in content eg
"unique widgets north london"
Could i expect to get a fairly good listing for this? I have tried to focus on longer phrases and havent used single words at all like "london" or "widgets" but have used "unique widgets area 1" "unique widgets area 2" unique widgets area 3"

[sandor]

i think getting a single page to rank for 100 different key phrases is highly unlikely .. despite the fact that they're 4 word (usually easier) keywords, you still cant optimize the title of that page for each of these hundred key phrases and you'd probably need quite a few incoming links (using the various keyphrases as anchor text) to each of these pages. doing the quick math in my head and the numbers are looking pretty complicated.

[deejay]

Hi Chiesa

It's far more usual to see pages targetting one, two or perhaps three keywords/phrases.

100 per page seems hopelessly impractical.

Given that it is going to take a certain keyword density to get SERP placement, and given that densities tend to be targetted between 8-20% (depending on your personal interpretation of the algo)....

Assuming your phrases are all the same length and ignoring overlaps, 100 keyphrases suggests a maximum density of 1%.... and that's without any non-keyphrase text?

Back to the drawing board I'd say..

[chiesa]

Thanks for your reply.
Still not clear what search engine density is, I'll Google for it later.
You mentioned over-laps...

Is it a good idea to use over laps?
I.e.

Widgets north london
widgets north
north london
widgets
north
london

?

[Marcia]

Keyword density is the ratio of the keywords/phrases on a page to the total number of words on a page, given in percentages.

Widgets north london
widgets north
north london
widgets
north
london

widgets, north and london are very general. You could get by with two-word phrases, but for north alone there's really no point targeting it. It could be north pole or north Philadephia. London could be London dog groomers, London takeout pizza, london hairdressers. widgets could be London Widgets or Miami widgets. Not a good use of time, no conversion could reasonably be expected.

widgets
widgets london
widgets in london
widgets north london
widgets in north london
widgets in the north of london
widgets at the north end of london

london widgets
north london widgets
etc.

You start with longer, once you're moving up you hone in on shorter phrases and additional combinations as you accumulate search terms used over time. On this one the three word phrases would possibly be within expectations starting out and OK for the title, with the longer phrases used on the page itself within body text.

[deejay]

:) Marcia took the words right out of my mouth... and said them more succinctly too.

To keep an eye on your keyword density, use Brett's keyword density analyser here: [searchengineworld.com...]

I often run it on pages I'm studying to give me a better idea of how my pages compare.

It's very easy to get carried away with keywords and forget what your actual objective is. As Marcia noted, "north" is irrelevant on its own, as is "London", and probably "north London". If you get top placement for those words/phrases you'll probably just end up wishing you hadn't while you watch your bandwidth fees soar and sales sit in the doldrums.

I have a piece of paper sellotaped to the wall behind my monitor... printed on it in 4 inch high letters are three words: "I SELL WIDGETS". It helps to have that in my line of sight when I start to pre-occupied with ranking for 'north London' or similar. :)