Keyword Density

How to Fully Optimize Keyword Density:

 

What is Keyword Density?

A vital SEO technique to have great search engine placement is making sure your website has great content, but also by incorporating many of the phrases searchers are using to find their answer.  After doing your Keyword Research and you have the group of keywords you would like to implement onto your website, the number of times you use those particular words compared to the rest of the content is called your Keyword Density.  The more keywords you have on your page that searchers use; the higher the Keyword Density percentage will be.  The tricky part is too high of a Keyword Density percentage could get penalized from Google for looking too much like spam and could ruin your search result placement too.

So How Do You Perfect Keyword Density?

There isn’t a best keyword density rate for every website to follow, but only suggestions.  According to Rand Fishkin’s article on Moz.com, the number of different keywords to implement onto your content could be anywhere between 5-20 depending on the type of content you are publishing.  The main piece of advice is to implement keywords into the page naturally. That way its better for the reader and search engine which will get more readers because of the likable info, and won’t get penalized for using too many phrases or “Keyword Stuffing.”  Even using the same keyword more than it naturally would be used in the content could result in the same penalty and be less enjoyable to read by searchers. Many researchers including some on Moz.com, all mention being around 1.5% for a density rate is great for a page. It’s a very rough number though and shouldn’t be taken as a strict reference.

Measuring Keyword Density

When it comes to Measuring Keyword Density there are many tools out there that can be used to help.  For example, SEO Quake can immediately tell you your density rate as well as what keywords you use the most on your website.  Another density checker you can use to help analyze your density rate is SEO book which not only provides you with your Keyword Density, but also is capable of informing you of your competitors and a recommended percentage to be at to maximize your Keyword Optimization.

Density Strategy

A good solid strategy is figuring out where your keyword should be placed in your content and how frequent you should be using them.  Harsh Agrawal & his article on shoutmeloud.com explains the main keyword you are trying to target should be placed at least once but not excessively in the following areas: The permalink, H1 Tag, H2 tag, meta title tag, at the start and end of the article, and to have the word be in anchor text for relevant images in the content.  This will make Google see it as extremely relevant for who you are reaching which will help your SERP placement. Again though, top quality content is preferred over stuffing the article with loads of keywords.

Final Search Engine Optimization Tips

            So there isn’t one magical keyword density that can be used by every website, but the key is to create content with target keywords sprinkled throughout the whole content.  This way it gets the search engine’s attention by being relevant, but also is easy to read for all of the users. Which in return, will result in less bounce rates and longer interaction times with users on the website.  It’s also vital to use the necessary tools to be able to analyze density rates of competitors and yourself to make sure you’re in the ballpark or doing better than your competitors.  Ending in you being above everyone else in the search results for being more relevant.

 

Written by: Jordan Kocherhans