Keyword ranking in 2016 ?

[cpafixman]

Hi

I have written a few content posts relating to my niche. In these posts i have the keyword that i am targeting only 2 -4 times in the actual post (post is 500 - 1000 words long). Does keyword placement, density etc still matter in 2016

thanks

 

[Mithras]

Density still matters, so as not to over use the main KW.

I've ranked posts before, some with around 1.5-2% density and others under 1%.

Majority of my posts, especially ones targeting KW's, I use atleast 2000words. Google does favour longer content these days.

Kw placement is up in the air, regarding the body text.
Some say the KW has to be within the first 100 characters, while others suggest it doesn't really effect your over all ranking.

For it might look like

Kw in-

-url(depending on if it's long tail or not
-post title
-h1
-meta description
-2 times in body(depending on how long my post is

I'll also use lsi words in my image alt tag and h2 tag.

Most of my posts have ranked with that alone, and obviously if competition isn't too ruff off the bat.

 

[monkeymind]

Just butting in but if I write a 3000+ word article with the intention of targeting one keyword but using similarish phrases as well - is it possible that article will rank for different keywords too? (didn't explain what I meant right in a bit of a rush)

 

[Mithras]

Just butting in but if I write a 3000+ word article with the intention of targeting one keyword but using similarish phrases as well - is it possible that article will rank for different keywords too? (didn't explain what I meant right in a bit of a rush)

Absolutely

If for instance your seed(main) KW is "seo training", and somewhere in you article you mentioned "best seo training guides"
it is possible you'll rank for that as well.

I always like to add in long tails of the main KW, for that reason and if it fits nicely with the content, then why not

Also using LSI variations of your KW's can help as well, so an example would be, rather than mentioning "seo training" 2-3 times mix it up and use "search engine optimization training".
as long as your post/page is about "seo", google will understand the latter phrase as well.

 

[Delyte]

2-4 times in ~1000 words seems like a good amount to me. It definitely doesn't hurt to mention similar keywords (in fact repeated mentions probably should be different, but related keywords), but from what I can tell, Google's algorithms are getting good at detecting QUALITY CONTENT, so it seems that you want to create QUALITY CONTENT that people read, enjoy, and benefit from. If your content is QUALITY CONTENT, then you're probably doing OK. Google is so good at detecting QUALITY CONTENT over crappy keyword-stuffing, SEO-hacking content that the rule in 2016 seems to be more than anything, to focus on creating QUALITY CONTENT.

I don't think this post will rank for the keyword QUALITY CONTENT, but hopefully I drove the point home. As long as you mention your keyword once or twice, the most important thing is that it's QUALITY CONTENT that people like. One of the best demonstrators of this is Rankbrain, which is a new(ish) ranking algorithm that Google has implemented which changes your ranking based on user engagement. If people who search your keyword end up on your page and immediately go back to search results after 1-2 seconds (aka pogo sticking), then your page wasn't appealing enough or didn't offer the answer the user was looking for, so Google penalizes you. On the other hand, if users who search that keyword stay and read your page, and especially if they go further into your site, you will see a rise in ranking, even if nothing on the page changes.

A great example was this article:
How to Get High Quality Backlinks (Without Guest Posting)

The article was titled "How to get high quality backlinks" and he managed to somehow rank #1 for "How to get high". So at first glance, you might think wow, he didn't need QUALITY CONTENT because he ranked for an unrelated keyword without even talking about it! And it's true. Keep in mind he wasn't keyword stuffing, and he ranked #1 for a phrase he almost definitely only mentioned once or twice. However, because this wasn't the content people were looking for when they searched "How to get High", people popped in and immediately popped out, so Google noticed this and his ranking dropped like a rock to the 3rd page and beyond for "How to get High."

I hope now you'll realize that having QUALITY CONTENT is the absolute most important part of creating content. I'm not saying it's not bad to still think about these things and keep them in mind as you're producing content, but producing HIGH QUALITY CONTENT should be the #1 thing you're thinking about when producing content. I hope that content ends up being HIGH QUALITY CONTENT ;P

 

[monkeymind]

Okay, something tells me QUALITY CONTENT is a good thing to have. Post above clears a few things up in my head. Is there a way of seeing what keywords a page ends up ranking for: both my own pages and competition? (probably a newbie question)

So if you produce quality content there is a chance you rank for something appropriate that you did not intend but works well anyway as it naturally flowed from the content?

 

[Mithras]

Okay, something tells me QUALITY CONTENT is a good thing to have. Post above clears a few things up in my head. Is there a way of seeing what keywords a page ends up ranking for: both my own pages and competition? (probably a newbie question)

So if you produce quality content there is a chance you rank for something appropriate that you did not intend but works well anyway as it naturally flowed from the content?

I use google wmt and ahrefs to check where my keywords are at.

Brian dean could probably rank for just about anything to do with SEO, considering the authority that site has and the juice that flows to inner pages

 

[Delyte]

Yeah you can definitely rank for things you didn't intend and it can work out because it might answer questions you weren't intending to answer, but nobody else has a good enough answer (or highly enough ranked page with the answer) so you inadvertently answer their question.

Which is actually an important point to make regarding keywords that I don't see addressed often. I may be wrong on this, but I imagine it's better to target groups of keywords/searches generally rather than just 1 specific keyword. Not only does it expand your audience, but it can make your content feel more natural because you're addressing a subject rather than exactly "5 laptops under $500" or something to that extent. It probably helps to also target "laptops under $500" or "choosing a new laptop on a budget" and similar things like that.

 

[SEO Guru]

Yes of course. Google bot still come out the best result with page authority and page authority depending on some factors like keyword URL, title, meta description, etc.