| |
POOR |
NEEDS IMPROVEMENT |
TYPICAL |
BEST PRACTICE |
| Optimized Pages |
0 |
1-9 |
10-99 |
100+ |
| Keyphrase Relevance |
Irrelevant |
Relevant, but mostly "internal-speak" |
Relevant, but many related terms are omitted |
Relevant and covers all the related phrases commonly-used by your audience |
| Keyphrase Search Volume |
Too low |
Too high
(i.e., too competitive) |
Moderate |
High, but achievable with supplemental link-campaign support |
| Keyphrase Density |
< 1% or > 8% |
1-2% |
2-3% |
3-7% |
| Secondary Keyphrases |
Not present |
Not related |
Related |
Related; optimized in "content blocks" |
| Heading Tags |
Not used |
<h1>,<h2>, and <h3> are present, but misused |
<h1> is used only once, for the primary keyphrase |
<h1> is used only once, for the primary keyphrase; <h2> and <h3>, if used, usually contain secondary keyphrases |
| Title |
The primary keyphrase is not used in the title |
The primary keyphrase is used at the middle or the end of the title |
The primary keyphrase is used at the beginning of the title |
The primary keyphrase is used at the beginning of the attention-grabbing title |
| Keyphrase Stuffing |
Keyphrases are not intentionally "inserted." Many opportunities to replace generic words remain |
Keyphrases are intentionally (but too obviously) "inserted," making the prose "clumpy" |
Keyphrases are intentionally "inserted" without impacting readability, but achieving only barely adequate keyphrase density |
Keyphrases are intentionally and deftly "inserted" as the first words of the first sentence, then over-weighted in the first few paragraphs following any keyphrase-rich heading. "Special features" are deployed to increase keyphrase density, when necessary |
| Hyperlink Text |
No outbound links. Or raw URLs are displayed |
Generic terms such as "click here" or "for more information" are used as link text |
Primary and secondary keyphrases are used as link text |
Primary and secondary keyphrases are used as link text. Links go to popular sites relevant to the keyphrase. The title attribute is used with the link tag |
| Content Quality |
Less than 300 words. Or vague |
"Me too" quality |
Unique "angle," but not clearly better than the content provided by the top 10 webpages listed by Google for that keyphrase |
Clearly better than any of the top 10 webpages listed by Google for that keyphrase |
