# Optimize Content

### SEO Optimizer

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of improving the traffic to a website from the organic or natural results of a search engine. SEO practices do not attempt to trick search engines. On the contrary, the goal of SEO is to provide information-rich content in a way that is naturally weighted by the search engines because it follows the "rules" used by all the major search engines.

The SEO Optimizer is a fee-based upgrade service that will help you to follow these rules for optimizing content according to current SEO best practices. The SEO Optimizer analyzes your content using the latest search engine rules, and provides you with a score along with specific recommendations for improvement. For a demonstration of the SEO Optimizer, watch the tutorial video. To add the SEO Optimizer to your website, contact your website administrator.

The key to writing content that is search engine optimized is to focus on a primary topic for the page. This will be your Primary Keyword or Keyword Phrase and should be the central theme for the content of the page. The more closely your page content is related to the Primary Keywords, the more "understood" your content will be by the search engines, and the better your page will be ranked in relevant search results.

Title

When writing the title for the content, the SEO Optimizer will help you too:

- Determine the best number of characters for your title, increasing the likelihood of a click-through.

- Determine the best number of words to include in your title.

- So you how to display your keyword phrase in the title to increase the relevancy of your content for that keyword phrase, and increase the likelihood of a click-through.

- Where to add your Primary Keyword to increase the relevancy of the keyword within the search engines' indexes.

Description

The description will generally be the summary or "snippet" copy for the search result. When writing the description for the content, the SEO Optimizer will help you too:

- Determine the best length of the description to ensure the full description is visible in a search result.

- Show you how to place your keyword phrase in the description. This will increase the relevancy of your content for that keyword phrase, and increase the relevancy of the keyword within the search engines' indexes.

Tags

Tags are keywords that are used to build Tag Clouds within your website pages. These tags are not heavily considered by the SEO Optimizer, but they can indirectly improve your search engine results by exposing relevant keywords and navigation to related pages that the search engines might not otherwise find. For more information about adding Tag Clouds to your website pages, see Page Styles.

Body

When writing content for the body, the SEO Optimizer will help you too:

- Determine the best length of the body content.

- Determine the proper keyword density so each keyword or keyword phrase does not represent too much of the total words on the page. Otherwise, the search engine may consider the page to be using keyword stuffing.

- Determine how to apply additional emphasis to your keyword phrase.

- Determine the density and distribution of hyperlinks within the body content. This will also ensure that you are not "spamming" or "keyword stuffing" your content with links to the same web page too many times which will adversely affect your search engine ranking.

- How to place hyperlinks in the body in order to show prominence.

### Understanding Your SEO Score

After the SEO Optimizer analyzes your content, you will receive an SEO Score, and specific recommendations to improve that score. You should continue to revise your content until the score is at least 74%. A score of up to 100% is possible, but should not be your primary goal. Remember, your content must be readable by humans too, so don't get caught up in trying to achieve a perfect score at the expense of readability.

The following is a list of the main SEO checks performed, and what they mean:

Flesch Reading Ease Score − one of the best-known and most popular readability indicators. The formula rates text on a 100-point scale based on the average number of syllables per word and words per sentence. The closer the score is to 100, the easier the content is to read; the closer the score to 0, the more difficult the content is to read. In general, a score below 30 is considered very difficult, and a score of 70 is estimated to be written at the eighth or ninth grade level. Research has indicated that a score of 70 is likely appropriate for adult readers. A score of 100 represents that the content is understood by readers with at least a fourth grade education.

Flesch Reading Ease Table
Style | Flesch Reading Ease Score | Average Sentence Length in Words | Average Syllables per 100 Words | Estimated School Grade Completed | Estimated Percent of U.S. Adults
Very Easy | 90-100 | 8 or fewer | 123 or fewer | 4th Grade | 93
Easy | 80-90 | 11 | 131 | 5th Grade | 91
Fairly Easy | 70-80 | 14 | 139 | 6th Grade | 88
Standard | 60-70 | 17 | 147 | 7th or 8th Grades | 83
Fairly Difficult | 50-60 | 21 | 155 | Some High School | 54
Difficult | 30-50 | 25 | 167 | High School or Some College | 33
Very Difficult | 0-30 | 29 or more | 192 or more | College | 4.5

Adapted from Flesch, R. (1949). The art of readable writing. New York: Harper. p.149.

Keyword - a word (or combination of words) that describes the topic or subject of a piece of content. It is also a word or combination of words that are used in a search engine to search for a topic or subject.

Primary Keyword - a term developed by SEO experts to designate the keyword(s) or keyword phrase(s) in a piece of content that are most likely to result in an organic search listing based on Scribe's analysis of the content and the keyword usage.

Keyword Analysis - a proprietary process utilized by SEO experts to determine the keyword(s) or keyword phrase(s) in a piece of content based on popular search terms. It includes a report on the rank, prominence, frequency, and density of the keyword(s)/keyword phrase(s), and provides related terms.

Related Keyword Tag - words or combinations of words added to a piece of content that describe the main topic(s) or subject(s) of a piece of content.

Keyword Rank - a proprietary algorithm developed by SEO experts that determines the value of keyword(s) or keyword phrase(s) in relationship to a piece of content and to each other. Keywords are ranked in descending order of importance as either Primary, Important, Significant, or Not Emphasized.

Keyword Density - the number of times a keyword or keyword phrase appears in a particular piece of content in relation to the total number of words in the content. It is usually represented as a percentage; the higher the number, the greater the density. Current SEO best practices suggest that a keyword's density be less than 5.5% for one piece of content.

Keyword Frequency - the number of times a keyword or keyword phrase appears in a particular piece of content. It is usually represented as a whole number; the higher the number, the greater the keyword frequency.

Keyword Prominence - a proprietary formula developed by SEO experts that determines the value of a keyword or keyword phrase based on its relative placement within a particular piece of content. Prominence is rated as either Very Low, Low, Medium, High or Very High. The higher the prominence, the more favorable the keyword/keyword phrase is presumed to be weighted in the content by the search engine algorithm. You should strive to achieve a Prominence rating of high or very high for your Primary Keyword/Keyword phrase for a page. However, all Keywords/Keyword phrases on a single page should not have a high or very high prominence rating to minimize the chance that search engines will consider you guilty of Keyword stuffing or spamming.

Keyword Research - the act of exploring keywords. The process frequently involves reviewing search volumes of targeted keywords and alternative keywords to determine which keywords to include in content.

Keyword Stuffing (or keyword spamming) - adding an excessive number of keywords or keyword phrases to a web page or repeating a keyword or keyword phrase excessively on one page in place of relevant content. It is typically a technique used by those trying to "trick" the search engines into ranking a website in organic searches.

Trend - the approximate search volume of a keyword or keyword phrase over the past 12 months. Trend is helpful to identify seasonality of keywords that may have a low volume but are on the rise.

SERP (Search Engine Results Page) - the web page(s) containing hyperlinks to related content provided by a search engine in response to a search query. Usually, the results page returns both paid ads (sponsored links) and organic listings.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) - the practice of improving the traffic to a website from the organic or natural results of a search engine.

SEO Best Practices (white hat SEO) - utilizing search engine optimization (SEO) techniques that align with the guidelines of the search engines' ranking algorithms without the use of trickery. Examples of trickery include using hidden text, duplicating content, link farming and keyword spamming, to name a few.