SEO Tips: Using TagCrowd as an SEO Tool

SEO (search engine optimization) and keyword density are terms that scare many a writer who want to write for the internet. TagCrowd.com makes the basics of SEO very easy to visualize without having to crunch numbers in hopes of attaining proper keyword density.

Some say that in order to write for your work to be found on the internet, you should strive for a keyword density of 3-5% and anything over 7% is too much. That means that of the total count of words in your piece, 3-5% of them should be key words that you think people will search for in order to find your article. If your article is 500 words, then the key words should show up between 15 and 25 times.

If you're more of a visual person and numbers confuse you, use TagCrowd.com. TagCrowd is a unique and easy to use tool that creates a tag cloud, with the words that appear most often in your text being the largest and boldest. It takes mere seconds to see whether the keywords you expect show up larger than others. Why do the math when what you want to do is write? Let TagCrowd do the calculations and show you in an easy to understand picture whether you're on the right track in learning basic SEO skills.

Using TagCrowd.com takes no skill; simply copy and paste your text into the white box or browse to select a text file from the hard drive on your computer and click on visualize. Do not insert the URL of a webpage as that will analyze the entire page, including advertisements and other miscellaneous data that will skew the results of analyzing your text.

As soon as you click visualize, a box with scrambled words should appear, some larger and more bold than others (see photo above). The largest and boldest words should be your keywords, as they are the words that appear most in the text that you inserted. If the words you expected to see are not there or are smaller, you have a snapshot of what you need to fix to achieve optimum keyword density using basic SEO skills.

If you are writing an article about the how to restore a 1957 Chevrolet, I think the list of keywords that people might look for to find your article might include: restore, 1957, Chevrolet, antique, vintage - with the first three being the most important.

If you insert your text into TagCrowd and the tag cloud doesn't show 1957, Chevrolet and restore as being the largest and boldest, you would need to change/add a phrase or two to increase the number of times those words appear. If they are large but not the largest, it may only take inserting each one more time to achieve proper keyword density. If the most prominent words are those you do not want to be keywords, do a quick rewrite to delete or replace a few.

Options at the bottom of the TagCrowd text box allow you to change variables such as language, not analyzing certain words, etc; I use the default settings with good results.

Will TagCrowd teach you how to write better, spell check your document or use proper grammar and punctuation? No. TagCrowd.com is just another tool to make learning the fundamentals of SEO a bit easier.

Using TagCrowd won't make you an SEO expert, but it's a good place to start.

Sources:
Personal experience
TagCrowd.com