Broad keyword usage vs appropriate keyword usage

[karalyte]

May I ask what is the difference between "broad keyword usage" and "appropriate keyword usage" that is included on the on-page reports? thank you!

[RobertFisher]

Egle

As it is used within the on-page report card, it is a bit confusing. I looked at the use of Broad for Page Title, Document, and then the various uses of Appropriate. Interestingly, every time appropriate is used, there is a number associated with it. So appropriate/document - use it at least 4 times, H1 - 2 or less, title tag length - 66 char. Only for Characters in URL did appropriate not have a number.

For Broad, it appears the word is being used globally(the whole page) to point to a specific place: Broad usage - Document, broad usage - title tag. Appropriate seems to define a number range as it is used here. (I do not think it is an appropriate use of the word.)    

I can't wait to see the mozzanswer.

[karalyte]

Thanks Robert!

Yes, it seems that "broad" refers to a generic usage of the keywords throughout the page (document elements & body text).

And for "appropriate" and "exact", here is what I was able to figure out so far, not sure if it is true yet

The "appropriate" refers to keyword usage (not in exact fashion as the keyword phrase) within the document elements such as H1, page title, etc

And "exact keywords" refers to exact keyword usage within the body text.

[RobertFisher]

Egle,

I think you may be on to something

[Miranda.Rensch]

Hello! Sorry about the confusion here.

Essentially, the "broad" factor tells you if you've used the keyword in the document text at least once and the "appropriate" factor tells you how many times out of four that you've used the keyword (we recommend using it at least four times in the document text).

As you can tell, these are a bit redundant at the moment, but this is so that they can be broken out by importance. Using the keyword at least once in the document text is a critical factor. Using it four times isn't quite critical, but its still pretty important.

As far as the difference between "exact keyword usage in document" and "broad keyword usage in document", this refers to broad and exact in a way similar to how adwords thinks of a broad match and exact match for keywords.

So if your keyword was "tennis shoes", we'd say you satisfied the broad match requirement by using the word "shoes" and "tennis" in the document text within five words of each other. You would only satisfy the exact match requirement by using the words "tennis shoes" together in the document text.

I hope that answers your question. Thanks!

Miranda

[RobertFisher]

Thanks Miranda, Liked that last tenni shoe paragraph, very interesting.

[MarkLeyland]

Does the 4 keyword usage still apply considering the Google Penguin update? I've read that you can now actually get penalised for doing so and that's it's better to include niche keywords (synonyms) that all relate to the subject matter rather than repetitive keywords/phrases.

[RuthBurrReedy]

As with most of our Crawl Diagnostics recommendations, using the keyword around 4 times is like the Pirate's Code: It's more of a guideline than a rule. That's, in part, why we chose to call it "appropriate" keyword usage rather than "correct." In general my rule of thumb is "use the keyword when it makes sense to use it, without so much that it sounds crazy" which in a standard-size web document of 300 words or more is going to be around 4 times. Including synonyms and other semantically related terms is also good to do, and should be pretty easy if you've chosen a good topic for your keyword. I hope that helps!