What is the best way to keyword optimize your site content?

• With regard to on-page optimization, what should I be focusing on to give my sites the best chance of ranking success? How many words of content should I shoot for? What's the percentage of target keywords in that content? Is there a secret formula I can implement?

Answer: Here's the short answers and then we'll expand a bit at the end.

1. With regard to on-page optimization, what should I be focusing on to give my sites the best chance of ranking success? Answer: Developing content that people feel compelled to link to.
2. How many words of content should I shoot for? Answer: There is no specific target range for number of words. However, the keywords on each page should lean toward a single-theme approach. In other words, you'll experience better results if you develop pages that focus on very specific keyword phrases and their semantically-related equivalents.
3. Is there a secret formula I can implement? Answer: No. If there were some "secret formula" for immediate top rankings, it would quickly be leaked to the SEO community and would quickly thereafter stop working. That's simply the nature of SEO.

Furthermore, Google strenuously objects to most quick-ranking strategies. With the exception of quickly acquired links via social media, Google tends to configure its algorithm to neutralize, and often penalize, every other strategy that is geared toward purely ranking efforts.

For that reason, we recommend you avoid the latest SEO "trick of the month" club ...that is, if you plan to build an online business that will last for more than a few months. Google tends to remember who the SEO-gamers are—and that can throw a monkey wrench into your long term ranking efforts.

In the end, it's mostly about your incoming links. What's been changing most recently are the strategies for building them—and that is why our recent reports have focused so precisely on the changing face of link building campaigns. If you haven't already done so, w...