5
Nov
2009
SEO and Keyword Density
People involved with SEO always end up debating keyword density. People have some strong opinions about this and its involvement with your rankings in the search engines. However, some serious questions need to be answered. Does it really exist? Does keyword density improve your rankings and if so, what’s the proper density that you should be going after?
Keyword density is of course the percentage that a keyword or key phrase shows up in the content of your website. If the word “cars” shows up 10 times in a 200 word article, then the density for that word is 5%. Additionally, if the words “red cars” show up 5 times, you still have a 5% density because the phrase still takes up 10 words out of 200 words.
Many people have the belief that a specific keyword density is the solution to success with SEO. However, there is no consistency in what people believe. Some people seem to think that extremely high keyword usage, up to 10% is acceptable and effective. Other people feel that smaller 4% or 5% keyword density is the ideal figure. So what is it really, and how can your website use keyword density to improve on its success?
However, these days we know that for SEO there is not a specific, targeted keyword percentage that is going to improve your rankings. There is no exact science, and it’s unwise to try to achieve a specific keyword density just because you think it will improve your rankings.
Instead, what you should try to do is to include your keywords naturally throughout your content. You can certainly try hard to ensure you include them and include them in the right places, and you can even set basic guidelines to help you achieve this. For example, you can try to use a keyword once per every paragraph or two instead of focusing on a rigid percentage for a keyword density.
More important is to ensure that you use the words you are targeting for SEO, and to make sure that you do not overuse them. It’s entirely way too easy to overdo yourself while pursuing a keyword density. If you think you have used a phrase too much, then you probably have. Your visitors will be turned off, and you can even get punished in the rankings of the search engines as a result.
Another important thing that you’ll want to remember is that besides your content, other areas of your website can be affecting the level of keyword density that you have. For example, the terms used in the links within your menus show up in the search engines, as does the description you enter in your META tags and the title you have at the top of the browser.
Keyword density has proven to be more fiction than fact. Yes, you want to include your keywords and include them often enough so that you get “credit” for them. But there is no such thing as a perfect keyword density for SEO, and you shouldn’t force keywords in to try to meet any precise figure.
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