Article provided with permission by Rank Write Roundtable. © 2000 Rank Write Roundtable.

Rejected for Too Many Super Duper Pooper Scoopers?! By Heather Lloyd-Martin - October 20, 2000 (From the Rank Write Roundtable Newsletter) ~~~Successful Online Writing~~~ From: Bob Gaskins I've read several places that many/some/most (depends on which guru is writing the diatribe) search engines will reject pages that have too many repetitions of the keyword on them. I'm not referring to repetition in the meta keyword tag, but to the actual copy on the page. It would seem that the more times I mention "super duper pooper scooper" on my super duper pooper scooper page, the more likely it would be that I'm actually talking about super duper pooper scoopers. After all, if the page is NOT about super duper pooper scoopers, why would I mention super duper pooper scooper so many times? So here are the questions: How much is too much? How much is too little? How often is just right? And .... How will I KNOW whether it's just right or not? Bob Gaskins Creator of "Turn Your Hobby Into Cash! How To Make a GREAT Living Doing What You Love!" http://www.hobbycash.com ~~~Heather's Response~~~ Hi, Bob, What a super duper question! I think a lot of people feel your pain with this one. After all, it's hard to concentrate on "keyphrase density" when five different gurus are recommending five different methods. Throw in worrying about "too many keyphrase repetitions" and you have a confusing, crazy-making dilemma! My advice - bring it back to the basics. If you read Rank Write issue 015 [http://www.rankwrite.com/archives/issue015.htm,] you'll know that I think the whole "keyword density" thing is pure hooey. Jill also agrees in her article, "The Myth of Gateway Pages," [http://www.rankwrite.com/gatewaymyth.htm.] If your site has great content, finding places to include "super duper pooper scoopers" is easy. And the way to tell if you've used "too many keyphrases" is also simple - read your copy out loud. That's all it takes! No fancy tricks. No percentages. It's really that easy. When you've finished creating your optimized visible text, take the opportunity to really *listen* to how your writing sounds when read aloud. Did the text make you think, "This copy sounds totally strange," or did the writing make you want to buy - now! Is your marketing flow powerful and persuasive - or lost amongst the keyphrases? If your copy flows well, your pitch is still persuasive and your keyphrases are represented, you've done your job! Would you rather have your text optimized by a professional copywriter? Be sure to read your copywriter's text out loud and check it for flow. If their writing makes the keyphrases stand out like a sore thumb - or if the pitch is lost - ask for a rewrite. Thanks for your question! Keep those online writing questions coming! - Heather ~~~Jill's unsolicited 2 cents~~~ Heather and I really do feel that it is *that easy* to write good marketing copy that naturally utilizes your keyword phrases, but of course, we've been doing it for awhile. We realize that it might not seem so easy to people who don't do this for a living, day in, day out. On a related kind of funny note, I recently found a post on a search engine optimization forum making fun of us, because of our firm belief that all it really takes is good writing and some good tags to match to get high rankings. The people who post to that particular forum are so busy figuring out ever-changing algorithms and counting words, that they can't seem to see the forest for the trees. But you know what? [Shameless self-promotion warning!] We happen to have the results to back us up, so guess who's having the last laugh? - Jill ~~~Send Us Your Questions~~~ If you have questions about online copywriting or search engine optimization (or both!), just zip us an email to questions@rankwrite.com. We've had some folks ask if their question was "too basic" to be printed - and you don't have to worry about that! There are no "stupid" search engine optimization or copywriting questions, so ask away!