How about adding a new key word counter

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   TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years ago

   Wouldn't it be great to finish a hub, then be able to have all of the key words and their synonyms highlighted and counted and maybe even summed up so writers would know if they are using enough, too many, etc.
   
   This would save a ton of work!  You used to have something that highlighted the keywords, but it no longer exists.
   
   This idea might really help improve the site and traffic to individual hubs as well.
   
   Undoubtedly Google already has software that checks keyword counts, so why not HP?

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      Sherry Hewinsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      It sounds good to me. Are you listening HP?

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      Simone Smithposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for the suggestion, TIMETRAVELER2! I was just thinking myself this weekend about some cool SEO tools I've seen elsewhere and wondering what might help Hubbers the most if we were to add a new SEO-related feature.
      I know that in the recent past we have been hesitant about encouraging people to think too much about keywords (because that all too often leads to stuffing), but I am sure this might be executed in a manner that encourages prudent action.
      At any rate, I'll bring this up at this week's community meeting and see what the team has to say.

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         TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks Simone.  After posting this suggestion I realized that I can go into my MS Works processing program where I keep copies of all of my articles, go to "find" , type in key words or key phrases, and hit enter continually until all of the key words are found.  If I count as I go, I at least get some idea as to how many I have and whether I need to add or subtract some of them.  It would be much easier if HP would be able to include something like this that does the finding and counting for us!  I'm not a big key word person, but after reading you article about producing search friendly hubs, I realized I was missing the boat.  As a result, my numbers and my earnings are climbing and articles that have been languishing are now getting views!  So, thank you for that...that article was a real gem!

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            Simone Smithposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            I am so glad you found that article to be useful, TIMETRAVELER2!
            
            That said, after discussing the potential feature in our community meeting, we decided it would be best for us to leave it out. These are the reasons:
            1. We do not want to overwhelm people in the HubTool
            2. While including keywords is important, we see just as many issues with keyword stuffing, and this is something the tool might inadvertently encourage
            3. We could probably think through and design a feature that addressed the potential risks, but we have so many other urgent issues we want to address, it is not likely that this feature would ever get implemented
            
            I hope you understand! I truly appreciate the suggestion- it really is important to us that Hubbers think about using language that makes their work both reader friendly and search friendly, and rest assured that we are working on other features to address that from slightly different angles.

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               WryLiltposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               There are also a lot of free programs to do keyword density checking, such as: http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword-density/

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   lorddraven2000posted 10 years ago

   I would love to see a keyword density tool. It would let us know not only that we used the right amount but if we went overboard with it.

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   WryLiltposted 10 years ago

   TIMETRAVELER2, I just want to be sure you know what keywords are - every word in your hub (title, subtitles, text, photo captions, even comments) is a potential keyword. A keyword is simply any word/s that people type into Google to send them to your hub: Sometimes they might end up at your hub because their search matched the content of a sentence at the bottom of your hub, or a photo caption or even a question asked by a visitor in the comments.
   
   That said, I do agree that a density checker would be useful in making sure you're not hammering a point home too much - it'd also help with creative writing where repeating an unusual word more than once can stick out like a sore thumb to a reader!

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      TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Wry Litt:  Boy, you are just a bundle of know how!!  Nobody ever explained it that way...but here is my problem.  If I create a title and search for it in Google Keyword Tool...many times no searches whatsoever appear!  Or, I can put in one or two words that have searches, but if I add to them on either side, again, no searches or really minimal searches appear.  I never, ever know what to do and I really feel that creating the right title is very difficult for this reason.  Can you explain a bit more about this to me, as I am dying for good info on this topic.  Thank you...again, and again...oh yes,...and again!

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         Pearldiverposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         @ TIMETRAVELER2
         
         As WryLitt has stated earlier your keywords are those primary words or phrases that 'describe' your work... irrespective of what that subject is.  Of course if your subject or title is "Why are red cars best?" then it contains a more definitive and potentially more searched range of keywords than "My red car"
         For ease.... just try considering a keyword as being a word that best accurately 'promotes' the subject matter and/or context of the subject.  In that way, you will find it easy to identify titles that should be relevant and over time you will get better at constructing niche phrases etc.  Good Luck.

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         WryLiltposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Agree with what PD said.
         
         You can have as many researched keywords as you want. If you have a title like "Growing Blue Lichen on Red Rocks" (example only) you may find no one is searching those exact words but 200 people are searching "Growing Blue Lichen", 250 are searching "Blue Lichen", 300 are searching "Blue Lichen on Red Rocks" and 500 are searching "Red Rocks". So all up that would be 1250 possible traffic per month for that title (assuming that you could rank on the first page of Google for all those terms).

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   Marcy Goodfleischposted 10 years ago

   What a great idea!  I'd also appreciate some sort of formula to spot when there are too many keywords.  I try to use good titles & subheads, but after that, I just start writing.  I would not want to inadvertently use too many keywords, but I don't know what ratio offers the best comfort zone.

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      Ceres Schwarzposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I agree with this. I'm still not very knowledgeable on keywords. I'm still learning a lot about it but I know that people shouldn't stuff their articles with keywords so I would like to know if I'm inadvertently doing something like that. When I start to write, I just write without really thinking about keywords and things like that.

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      TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Marcy:  What I've heard is that appropriate key word use should be about 2 -5% of your total word count.  The problem is in FINDING and COUNTING them...which is why I suggested this idea.  I write pretty much as you do, but I'm finding that using the right title really makes a difference in views and money.  Still learning, girlfriend!

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