Using the same word in several phrases

[mk1001]

Hi all,

I am working for a company that has a very specific website and I want to know if the choice of keywords could be responsible for poor page rankings.

For instance, if I am creating a website about basketball. The keywords are:
Basketball
2012 Basketball
Basketball Scores
Basketball 2013
Basketball games

My question is, can having the word "basketball" in all of the keyword phrases be perceived as spamming and cause the website to rank poorly if a user searches for "basketball"?

This is what I suspect the problem is, but I want to ask for another opinion before I go and make any changes.

Thank you for any help it is greatly appreciated,
mk1001.

[ChillDot]

Hi all,

I am working for a company that has a very specific website and I want to know if the choice of keywords could be responsible for poor page rankings.

For instance, if I am creating a website about basketball. The keywords are:
Basketball
2012 Basketball
Basketball Scores
Basketball 2013
Basketball games

My question is, can having the word "basketball" in all of the keyword phrases be perceived as spamming and cause the website to rank poorly if a user searches for "basketball"?

This is what I suspect the problem is, but I want to ask for another opinion before I go and make any changes.

Thank you for any help it is greatly appreciated,
mk1001.

If you are talking about the meta keywords then that will not be the problem as Google do not value the meta keywords anymore due to too many people spamming it in orderto gain rankings.

If it is for keywords within the title then i suggest changing it to something that is more user friendly and doesnt repeat the same word over and over such as

"Basketball games and scores 2012/2013"

[mk1001]

Thanks for your responses.

By "keywords" I was referring to meta keywords, all of them describe the site very well.

The main keyword appears in all of the meta keywords, several times in the meta description, (of the home page) and 5 times in the home page title aswell.

However, when I search for this word in google or bing it is ranking in the third page.

There is stacks of good content on the website and pages ranking higher are useless.

[Test-ok]

Thanks for your responses.

By "keywords" I was referring to meta keywords, all of them describe the site very well.

The main keyword appears in all of the meta keywords, several times in the meta description, (of the home page) and 5 times in the home page title aswell.

However, when I search for this word in google or bing it is ranking in the third page.

There is stacks of good content on the website and pages ranking higher are useless.

If your title has basketball in it 5 times, I'd tend to believe your stack of good content might not be as good as you think it is.

I would revise that title. IMO you should make the title tell what the site is about. same with the titles in the sub pages along with the descriptions.

[DarrenHaye]

Drop the meta keywords, pointless.

Keywords in description is pointless.

Neither are used by google to rank sites..

You're worrying about totally the wrong things.

[mk1001]

Hi DarrenHaye and thanks for your advice.

So if the meta keywords and description are pointless, what should I be focusing on? The title and content?

[DarrenHaye]

Hi DarrenHaye and thanks for your advice.

So if the meta keywords and description are pointless, what should I be focusing on? The title and content?

Site wise, the content, titles, site structure etc yes and then working out how you will get quality and relevant sites linking to you.

Also depending on the niche, how you can best utilize social media.

You should check out the beginners guide to seo from seomoz

[johntucker300]

You should not repeat a keyword more than twice in the title tag. When you use a single keyword again and again it looks spammy. You can have this in title "Basketball games, Basketball scores 2012/2013"

[computer]

Just quickly on the topic of titles, what's the preferred word for a homepage in the title, so as each sub page of the site lists something relevant like "Site xx Services" or Site xx Contact", should home have "Site xx Home" "Site xx Welcome" "Site xx Index" etc or just the name of the site?

[Test-ok]

Just quickly on the topic of titles, what's the preferred word for a homepage in the title, so as each sub page of the site lists something relevant like "Site xx Services" or Site xx Contact", should home have "Site xx Home" "Site xx Welcome" "Site xx Index" etc or just the name of the site?

IMO
The homepage title should be what the site is about in the shortest possible wording...same goes with the sub-pages.

[jenniferlopezus]

Using same keywords frequently get spammed.I suggest you to convert this keyword to other phrases.

[mastermind1212]

If you are talking about the meta keywords then that will not be the problem as Google do not value the meta keywords anymore due to too many people spamming it in orderto gain rankings.

If it is for keywords within the title then i suggest changing it to something that is more user friendly and doesnt repeat the same word over and over such as

"Basketball games and scores 2012/2013"

Fully Agreed with Chilldot. We need to use a complete meaningful title relevant to our website's content.