What is Keyword Management?

Keyword management is the process of using just the right amount of certain words in a webpage to maximize its position in search engine listings. This process is one of the more popular Internet traffic-generation strategies. Once the search engine has moved users to the specific site, other common Internet marketing methods can take over. Keyword management can typically be easily done once the relevant information from targeted search engines is obtained.

Keyword management is one of the largest parts of search engine optimization (SEO). Two of the major factors search engines use to grade a page are keywords and their placement—they do this by using algorithms that assess webpages based on content. These grades determine the order in which the pages are displayed when a user performs a search. When users search for specific words and phrases, pages that have an appropriate number of hits are rated higher and will appear sooner in the ranks.

Proper keyword management targets a specific search engine. Each search engine has slightly different rules for what it considers proper keyword usage. One may want a certain number overall, whereas another may want a certain amount or percentage based on the length of the page. In most cases, filling the page with repeated instances of a certain keyword will not help the page’s score—they typically need to be strategically placed.

Keyword management will define places in which keywords should and shouldn’t be on a page relative to the search engine. It will also determine the maximum number of instances of that word in the overall page. Once a certain threshold is reached, additional usage of the same keyword will begin to degrade the page’s score. Search engines do this to prevent people from stacking pages with common phrases to redirect traffic to their page from a more appropriate location.

Proper keyword management is considered essential to web marketing. Using SEO practices to bring people to a specific webpage allows Internet marketers to target ads directly to web surfers. This targeted marketing can work well for everyone involved. A user has access to information about goods and services he may not have known about. The marketer increases their brand awareness and sales, and the webpage owner receives enough income to keep his page running.