Written by James Peggie
In the early days of the Internet, web enthusiasts were enamored with the technological marvels that the new age put before them. It almost seemed as though the written content in web sites was put in as an afterthought. Today however, users and developers alike have rediscovered the importance of the written word. Content plays a large role in keeping visitors on a web site. And search engines and their spiders just love good quality, regularly updated content.
When a search engine spider indexes your web site it automatically searches your meta tags and web site content for information. This information is then cataloged and when people search using particular terms that were included in your tags and content your site can be found.

After a visitor has searched for, found, and entered your site, clear easy to understand information helps them to move easily throughout your site. Web sites can be confusing places but good clear copy can make life so much easier for your guests. If the writing is unclear and contradictory then the chances are that you will quickly lose your visitor.

Web content writing requires skills that are different from traditional writing skills. Your web content writer should be able to combine writing, marketing and research skills. They should be able to understand your market segment and how they should target this market. Keyword analysis and density play an important role in content development. Your writer should be able to help you integrate potential search terms and keywords into your web site content. The challenge is to produce readable and grammatically correct text while having the desired level of keyword density.

When considering keyword density a good rule of thumb is four keyword phrases per 250-300 words or for longer pages 8-10 times in 500 words. This equates to a keyword density of 1.6 – 2% per page

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No one can understimate the value of keyword-rich pages ... if I wanted to get a high ranking in the SERPS for "keyword" which would hold more weight - backlinks with "keyword" as the anchor text or more mentions of "keyword" in my content? Are they both equally important? Is a high ranking an achievable goal having one without the other?

Maybe on yahoo you can get a good ranking with few links, but on google you need the links.

to me the goal of content for most sites is to hopefully inspire linkage.

keyword rich only matters if you dont have something that would naturally want to spread. once you have a well marketed product and brand you can write for people and they will do a large amount of the marketing for you.