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Computer confusion

SEO community not sure about Google’s new course advice

Computer confusion

SEO community not sure about Google’s new course advice

Google has recently released its new Digital Marketing and eCommerce Certificate qualification that enables you to learn even more about online marketing and potentially get a job in the industry, but the new information released as part of this qualification has been met with some controversy – even among key Google personnel themselves!

The new training course recommends that you have a maximum keyword density of 2%, suggests a minimum word count and gives recommendations on where to place your keywords in your website’s content.

What is keyword density?

Keyword density is the number of times you use your specific keyword in your website’s content. For example, for a digital marketing agency like us, we might want to rank for “digital marketing in Ellesmere Port”, and have content written about this on our website to help improve our visibility among people searching for this term with Google and other search engines.

In the new training, there is a section called ‘Keyword Research and Keyword Stuffing’, in which keyword density is addressed. It says that the industry standard for keyword density is 2%, meaning that no more than this percentage of your content should mention the keyword you want to rank for.

A new recommendation for minimum word count

Another section in the training says that you should write more than 300 words on your page, and that pages with content of more than 300 words, provided it is quality content, should rank higher in search engines.

Where to put your keywords in your content

The document also advises that you should have your keywords once in the following places in your content – page title, subheading, first paragraph and body conclusion.

But not everyone agrees!

This advice goes against much of what many people in the industry have come to believe to be true about search engine optimisation (SEO), and even Google’s own Search Liaison Danny Sullivan tweeted that the suggestions should be “ignored” when he was made aware of them.

Since Sullivan stresses that Google does not give recommendations on limits or “density”, this suggests that we should concentrate first and foremost on writing high-quality content that search engines can understand, rather than trying to adhere to any SEO “formula”. To find out more about our SEO services, get in touch with the friendly team here at Engage Web today.

Jonathon Roberts

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