New Article - Adding A List Of Keywords

[thejenn]

Authored by: Jill Whalen

Full Text: http://www.searchengineguide.com/wha.../0312_jw1.html

A Snippet:

My business partner is developing our site and wants to put a list of keywords at the bottom of some of our shop pages (i.e. below the text) in the hopes that this will get the search engines to notice us slightly more.

[BDoane]

I have seen websites that have a list of obvious keywords listed in a sidebar. I have been thinking of adding this type of list to one of my websites. It is a website that lists products with a brief description and a place for consumers to add their comments etc.

If each of these keywords was a link to a resource page would this be viewed by the Search Engines as spam? There would be many synonyms etc in the list that may point to the same page. For example, toilet and lavatory would both point to the same page with a listing of different types of toilets.

[Logan]

Hi Bill, to some extent your description sounds like your scenario is more for improving search engine rankings than something that is being done to help your visitors. At the same time, what you describe also sounds a lot like normal menu navigation for a site... and there is nothing wrong with that if it is helpful to your visitors. I would do it with care though, as changing the internal link structure of your site can impact your search engine rankings as well.

There would be many synonyms etc in the list that may point to the same page. For example, toilet and lavatory would both point to the same page with a listing of different types of toilets.

That's where you lose me. For starters ... how many? Too many done for search engine rankings and you 'may' be headed for trouble. As Jill suggests, why not make unique content/page for that topic? If its important enough to include in your 'list' ... then isn't it important enough to provide quality content regarding it? Regardless, I think what you describe isn't going to help a lot when it comes to your synonyms and the way you describe it.

My suggestion would be to create top level menu navigation for the most important and least competitive keywords you want to target. From there, I might add additional pages incorporating your keywords within content as Jill describes in her article. This 'section' might be multiple pages (depending on 'how many') and be along the lines of a sitemap with content/description further describing the links/pages and targeting long tail/less competitive keywords.

From the article ....

What I never understand about this (and it does come up a lot) is why those keywords can't be easily worked into the actual copy of the page.

I have a couple theories related to this, the first being that it often comes down to taking the time/effort. With human nature we often take the path of least resistance .... and copy/past of a keyword list is awfully easy versus the process of having to write out good copy. On top of that, I think the other factor is ... well.... search engine rankings. If a list of keywords does work (and it has in the past) there are benefits when it comes to a list of keywords and the proximity of words to each other versus having them spread thru content. For starters, someone can target a lot more keywords a lot quicker .... and some have had success ranking well with this tactic in the past. Short sighted though in the long run.... I think the problem stems from people seeing something small work and then jumping to the conclusion that more of that would be even better.