Keywords in <META NAME="Keywords

How many can I get away with?

[Gregg Stephenson]

I am trying to avoid spamming the S.E. However, I am having a hard time figuring out how many keywords (by character count) I can use in our Meta Tag Keyword section?

Right now if I add all the characters up with spaces I hit 567 (29 different KW combo's).

Anyone have practicle experience on what I can get away with?

[Macguru]

Try to use a maximum of 5 to 8 keywords per page. You dilute the value of each by putting too much of them.
Many SE consider a keyword in this tag that does not appear elsewere in the page as spam.

[agerhart]

Try to keep the keyword count at a reasonable amount.....as well as the keyword density.

Put yourself in the shoes of a human reviewer: Would you think the site was spamming?

[Gregg Stephenson]

I've been trying to keep it simple. However, when I start blasting out KW's I get so many that apply.

As an example our company provides CRM and eBusiness consulting. Some specific keywords are;

ebusiness
ebusiness consulting
ebusiness software
ebusiness solution

Ebusiness is the most general and probably the most useless. However, the remaining three do apply.

Where do I stop?

[Macguru]

If "ebusiness solution" does not appear in text on the page you are better not to put it in the meta. If you repeat "ebusiness" in the meta you are in trouble. Try to focus on text content of each page before you start "blasting out" keywords.

A free software called Good Keywords will give you some hints on the demand of each keywords, a good starting point.

[agerhart]

Develop the content and the keywords will come......a little Field of Dreams for ya!

Always develop the content and the site with the keywords in mind. Do not make the content too keyword dense....but you should be able to tell what the keywords are by looking at the content

[Gregg Stephenson]

I've got good content. Lots and lots of content. Enough that I need to cut some out because it causes folks to fall asleep when they read it.

I'm probably focusing to much on the little things like this. Unfortunatly for me I have enough knowledge to be dangerous but not enough experience to be truely effective.

Thanks both for your help!

[agerhart]

Gregg,

A good way to not bore your users with too much content is to split it up. There have been studies that say that people only scan content....keep it in small paragraphs

[Gregg Stephenson]

That is the direction I am heading.

After all the goal is that they by our products or services.

[Gregg Stephenson]

Agerhart,

The heat has fried my brain. With your last comment - does that imply that you would create a seperate webpage with the focused content and then submit it to the S.E.?

Say - one page on CRM consulting. Another seperate page on software, etc.

[agerhart]

definitely.....you have the right idea Gregg.

Create seperate sections or pages for each topic......use good naming conventions for the pages, directories, or sub-domains. This helps as well

[Gregg Stephenson]

Agerhart and Macguru - thanks for the help. I've read alot in other SEO guides (no names) but this forum is absolutly the best!

[agerhart]

I think so too Gregg! ;)

[Feralsteve]

Hiya Guys,
I'm a confused newbie and would like some help.
This looks like the right site and hopefully the right thread.
My main prob (I think) is my meta keywords.
I have a fishing site and I use words like fishing, fly fishing, bass fishing, etc
being seperated by a comma does this make 3 seperate words or 3 fishing 1 fly and 1 bass?
Like I said I'm a newbie and sorry to ask hat must be a dumb question. I've been at it for about 9 months and getting now where with my site.
ANY help would be greatly appreciated.
Kind Regards
Steve