A keyword theme places a focus on a page that search engine spiders use to determine the set of keywords that best represents a web page. How you craft a keyword theme when writing content for a page can make a huge difference in the rank position for that page. This SEO tutorial shows you how to form a proper keyword theme.
Keyword themes are the set of closely related search phrases that best represent the content on the page. Each page should be focused on a topic, and that is the keyword theme for the page.
Keyword themes take place at two levels in a web site. Each page forms a keyword theme based upon the primary topic for the page. An overall keyword theme is formed for an entire web site based upon keyword themes formed by individual pages. The keyword theme for each page reinforces the overall keyword theme for the site. If you want a site to rank well in Google, Bing and Yahoo, it is generally not a good idea to create a site that contains a conglomerate of disparate articles. Every web site should have an industry or overall focused theme. If you have a site focused on pets, an article about pizzas is not likely to rank well.
There is a misconception that all that needs to be done to get a page to rank well for a search phrase is to sprinkle a few instances of the search phrase throughout a web page. That only works if the search phrase is closely related to the keyword theme for the page itself and the page fits the overall keyword theme for the site. Once again, if your site and the page’s theme is focused on pumpkin carving, sprinkling in a few instances of keywords related to making a pizza will do nothing to help that page rank well for pizzas.
How to Form a Keyword Theme for a Web Page
It is possible to form both primary and secondary keyword themes for a page, as long as they are closely related. The primary theme is always going to be the main topic for the page, but the page can pick up rank positions for other closely related keyword themes.
Spiders use the HTML title tag as a signal for forming the keyword themes for the page, as long as the HTML title tag represents the topic for the contents on the page. The words in this tag must represent the topic for the page and the content must reinforce the keyword themes formed in the HTML title tag. I am also seeing evidence that Google is placing a stronger emphasis on the h1 heading tag than I have seen in the past. The h1 tag is commonly used for the article title that appears just above the content. My advice for the h1 tag is to use a variation of the keyword theme formed in the title tag. Sometimes the search phrase represented by that variation ranks higher than the search phrase used in the title tag.
When writing an article, my advice is to write the HTML title tag first and then write content that supports the keyword themes identified in the title tag. Words in the title tag are weighted from left to right. The primary theme for the page, ‘Forming Keyword Themes’, is therefore placed on the left side of the title tag. The secondary theme, ‘SEO tutorial’, is placed on the right side of the title tag. The primary topic for this tutorial is about forming keyword themes, so that is the primary topic. It is also an SEO tutorial, so that is a secondary theme. Both keyword themes need to appear in the content a few times, and they do.
Do not go overboard with repeatedly mentioning the targeted phrases in the content if you can avoid this. Excessive and repeated use of words may get the article flagged for keyword stuffing, which reduces its ability to rank well, rather than improving it. A good rule to remember is to, “Always write first for your users, but keep the search engines in mind while doing so.”