Is Keyword Density Still Relevant?
-
Good afternoon everyone!
I wanted to ask everyone here a question, one that has been being discussed around my office with a lot of different sides being taken.
Does Keyword Density matter? If it does, what percentage do you try to have your keyword hit?
-
In my experience its important to mention your keyword as much as you can provided that where you write that keyword actually makes sense, ie.. it should be surrounded by relevant text. I run a shopping site and department pages with say a 500-800 word block of text which mention the key phrase maybe 5-10 times rank much better than those without.
-
This is excellent, thank you! I had no idea that mentioning a keyword 15 times in a 500-word copy is something that gets flagged by Moz.
-
I was actually also looking for an answer to this and found threads way back 2013 with the same advice that keyword density doesn't matter. What I found using MozPro is that target keywords should be mentioned in the meta title, description, H1, URL (if possible), and at least once in the copy without breaking the keywords apart. I also found that mentioning a target keyword in a 500-word copy more than 15 times is flagged by Moz as stuffing. I just use these as a rough guide. When I'm feeling particularly worried that some keywords have been mentioned too much, I use a free keyword density analyser to see how many times they appeared and reduce if necessary (especially if the copy doesn't read too well because of too much repetitiveness). Hope this helps!
-
this a great list to keep in mind
-
Based on my experience "The Keyword Density" does not have a big impact on the rank performance of a web page.
Don't get me wrong you need your Keyword in Title Tag, Header 1 etc. But there other factors with a better impact and more weight than "Keyword Density"
1. Domain Age
2. Keyword Appears in Top Level Domain
3. Keyword As First Word in Domain
4. Domain registration length
5. Keyword in Subdomain Name
6. Domain History
7. Exact Match Domain
8. Public vs. Private WhoIs
9. Penalized WhoIs Owner
10. Country TLD extension -
I agree with what you have to say about KW stuffing and making sure that the content on our sites are useful, well-written and purposeful. But should we avoid focusing on keyword density entirely? Even if it's just hitting a 3%-5% margin?
-
No, you should not be stuffing KW or worried about density, make your content user friendly and useful based on the KW phrases that you want to attract visitors with.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Should I avoid duplicate url keywords?
I'm curious to know Can having a keyword repeat in the URL cause any penalties ? For example xyzroofing.com xyzroofing.com/commercial-roofing xyzroofing.com/roofing-repairs My competitors with the highest rankings seem to be doing it without any trouble but I'm wondering if there is a better way. Also One of the problems I've noticed is that my /commercial-roofing page outranks my homepage for both residential and commercial search inquiries. How can this be straightened out?
Local Website Optimization | | Lyontups0 -
Matching page for keyword doesn't show in search
Hello! I'm having an issue with my website Rooms Index, the website is in Hebrew so I'll provide examples in English for better understandings. When I'm searching Rooms by Hour in Haifa, google doesn't show the intended category page which is this, instead it shows my homepage in the results, this happens only for certain areas, while other areas are working well such as Tel aviv. For example if I searched day use in Las Vegas it'd show me the Las Vegas page dayuse.com/las-vegas, but searching for Brooklyn I'd only see dayuse.com. the pages are indexed and I can find them if I search site:roomsindex.co.il what could cause such problem?
Local Website Optimization | | AviramAdar0 -
Some of my brand keywords have a suspicious constant search visibility percentage.
Hi, I am having doubts about my search visibility on my brand key words, all of them have a constant rate of 32.50% and don't move up or down in months, even that when I track my site it has a great variety of organic entries each week. what can be the issue, if it's an issue, or why it's the search visibility not changing? Thanks for your responses.
Local Website Optimization | | garcia.meme0 -
An attorney left my clients firm and we still rank well for her name
We've taken down the attorney's official page. Should we redirect her old page to the home page? Do a custom 404? I'm sure there's a best practice here but I'm blanking.
Local Website Optimization | | TheKatzMeow0 -
My website is ranking well in all other IP except US ip and that too only one particular keyword could you guys help me ?
My website is Ranking well in all other keywords in all other countries Except US IP and only one particular keyword. Example :- One keyword ABC is ranking well in UK UAE and also on first position but in US IP not even in top 100 results or not even top 300 results
Local Website Optimization | | Hyperlinkinfosystem0 -
If your company name is the same as a famous person/movement/celebrity what kind of options do you have in building your knowledge graph relevance, and improving your SERP?
Is it possible for a large global company to compete for SERP rankings against a pop-culture celebrity/movement that is regularly in the news? Thank you!
Local Website Optimization | | Scratch-Kony0 -
What is the Best Keyword Placement within a URL for Inner Location Pages?
I'm working on a website with 100s of locations. There is a location search page (Find Widget Dealer), a page for each state (Tennessee Widget Dealers) and finally a page for each individual location which has localized unique content and contact info (Nashville Widget Dealer). My question is is related to how I should structure my URL and the keywords within the URL. Keywords in my examples being the location and the product (i.e. widget). Here is a quick overview of each of the 3 tiered pages, with the Nashville page being the most optimized: Find Widget Dealer - Dealer Page only includes a location search bar and bullet list links to states Tennessee Widget Dealers - Page includes brief unique content for the the state and basic listing info for each location along with links to the local page) Nashville Widget Dealer - Page includes a good amount of unique content for this specific location (Most optimized page) That said, here are the 3 URL structure options I am considering: http://website.com/widget-dealers/tennesee/nashville http://website.com/dealers/tennesee-widget-dealers/nashville http://website.com/dealers/tennesee/nashville-widget-dealer Any help is appreciated! Thank you
Local Website Optimization | | the-coopersmith0 -
Does Google play fair? Is 'relevant content' and 'usability' enough?
It seems there are 2 opposing views, and as a newbie this is very confusing. One view is that as long as your site pages have relevant content and are easy for the user, Google will rank you fairly. The other view is that Google has 'rules' you must follow and even if the site is relevant and user-friendly if you don't play by the rules your site may never rank well. Which is closer to the truth? No one wants to have a great website that won't rank because Google wasn't sophisticated enough to see that they weren't being unfair. Here's an example to illustrate one related concern I have: I've read that Google doesn't like duplicated content. But, here are 2 cases in which is it more 'relevant' and 'usable' to the user to have duplicate content: Say a website helps you find restaurants in a city. Restaurants may be listed by city region, and by type of restaurant. The home page may have links to 30 city regions. It may also have links for 20 types of restaurants. The user has a choice. Say the user chooses a region. The resulting new page may still be relevant and usable by listing ALL 30 regions because the user may want to choose a different region. Altenatively say the user chooses a restaurant type for the whole city. The resulting page may still be relevant and usable by giving the user the ability to choose another type OR another city region. IOW there may be a 'mega-menu' at the top of the page which duplicates on every page in the site, but is very helpful. Instead of requiring the user to go back to the home page to click a new region or a new type the user can do it on any page. That's duplicate content in the form of a mega menu, but is very relevant and usable. YET, my sense is that Google MAY penalize the site even though arguably it is the most relevant and usable approach for someone that may or may not have a specific region or restaurant type in mind.. Thoughts?
Local Website Optimization | | couponguy0