SEO Prominence: What Does It Mean?
Do you know what the word “Prominence” means when it comes to SEO?
SEO is a field of vast knowledge. I used to get discouraged because I didn’t know it ALL and couldn’t see how I ever would. Now that I’ve been in the field a lot longer, I understand that there are some CORE concepts that anyone interested in organic traffic should know. Professional SEOs should know a little about a LOT, but if you want to know something really, really well, such as linking, PPC, architecture, or other complicated aspects of SEO, you need to specialize and study that field extensively to the detriment of many others. You need to create a focus.
I know a little about a lot, and more about some things than others. But one of the things I know VERY well are the core concepts of SEO.
One of those is called “Prominence.”
So, what’s it mean?
It simply means that to rank for any keyword, it has to be prominent throughout. As I’ve heard Brad Fallon say it has to be used “early and often.”
To make sure you’re catering to prominence, you need to use your keyword in these ways, whenever possible:
- Your primary keyword phrase should be used first in your meta title and meta description.
- Your primary keyword should be used first in your article titles and headlines.
- Your primary keyword should be used in the first sentence of your article. (First in the sentence, too, when possible.)
- Your primary keyword should be used enough so that spiders know what your text is about, no matter what kind of text it is.
- Your primary keyword should be used in header tags and by bolding or italicizing, now and again, though I don’t find that to be highly effective.
And you should check your keyword density. People say it’s dead, and it may be in the near future, but for now, I keep it around 2%. That assures that it works for spiders and that it works for my readers, too. Otherwise, you’re probably stuffing where stuffing makes no sense.
The moral of the story is to keep your primary keyword phrase in your brain when you’re writing anything. Sometimes, it naturally shows up where you want it to. Other times, you’ll need to re-assess and adjust. However, remember that SEO prominence is very important to ranking. Always keep your primary keyword in first.
