How important is keyword density?
-
Several leading experts say that keyword density isn't all that important. What do you think of keyword density? Do you incorporate it into your day to day activities?
-
In my limited experience it's about clarity, not density. EGOL makes a good point, if your page is clear and well written about its subject, in general you should be alright.
-
It is still important to some extent. If you intend to rank for "Chinese Burgers" but you are writing more about "Cheese" instead, Google will assume the page is more likely about "Cheese" than "Chinese Burgers". If you get some backlinks with the right variations of anchor text that includes "Chinese Burgers" in the phrase, that will solve Google's dilemma, but assuming no backlinks and no other external factors, keyword density is still pretty important.
I know this could be confusing (as I was not too long ago) as lot of 'experts' say its not important - just do your own little test with brand new domains and see what kind of difference it makes.
Its true however that there is no magic "density" to this - just make sure you don't use some other keyword phrase more than your MEAT keyword phrase.
-
I'm with EGOL...I don't pay any attention to keyword density. I will be sure to have my keyword in the title. And as I write, I will mention it as it comes out naturally, but I'm not paying any attention to how often I've mentioned the keyword.
-
There is a good article on this subject here:
http://memeburn.com/2011/07/good-content-density-can-help-your-seo-strategy/
-
I pay zero attention to keyword density. I write naturally - when you are trying to write well that is a big enough job.
Setting KW density goals is a good way to screw up a great article.
-
Both Alan and Charles seem to have hit the nail on the head. On the one hand the keywords have to be in the content, and don't be surprised when you get customers asking you why!
The search engines follow what the human reads. Content that is stuffed with keywords, especially your meta-tags and alt-tags, will quickly get noticed by Google.
My rule of thumb is;
Main keyword - 3 times on homepage, also on every other page possible
Sub-level keywords - 1 time on homepage, wherever possible inside the website
-
I think it is important to have the keyword phrase you are targeting at least 1-2 times in the body content and it helps to have it in the title tags, image alt tags, and URL. Natural writing patterns typically don't have the same phrase repeated several times and we often see pages that rank very highly for a phrase without multiple instances of that phrase on the page.
"A complete myth as an algorithmic component, keyword density nonetheless pervades even very sharp SEO minds. While it's true that more usage of a keyword term/phrase can potentially improve targeting/ranking, there's no doubt that keyword density has never been the formula by which this relevance was measured." -Rand Fishkin
-
My own rule of thumb is to incorporate each of the top two or at most three primary phrases at least once, the top phrase at least twice, in the content - with the content being at least 400 words (or more) - and the more content, the more it needs to then have the partial phrases thrown into the writing. But there's no set formula for keyword density anymore. too many other factors to consider these days.
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
-
Penalized for keyword?
Hi There! We have been building our website (https://systemfarmer.hu) for years, and had a great position for the keyword "office 365" in hungary. Now our site dropped in the middle of nowhere in natural search list. Is it possible that google penalized us? Tried to find out the reason without any luck. Thanks! Laszlo
Technical SEO | | laszlosf0 -
New TLD .solution .company with exact keyword match - will it be a viable proposition for SEO
I noticed some option for new TLD like .company & .solution My exact match keyword domain is all but taken on the traditional domains (com/org/net/info). Is there an SEO benefits or disadvantage to use the .solution or .company with the exact keyword match? Thanks in advance
Technical SEO | | BLIT0 -
Avoid Keyword Self-Cannibalization
I'm working on the SEO for a page on my website for using a specific keyword. When I do the on page grader, It has unticked - 'Avoid Keyword Self-Cannibalization'. What is the best way to sort this issue? I've noticed that the page is using 2 URLs - does this play a role with this and my ranking in Google?
Technical SEO | | Jaybeamer0 -
Using meta keywords
Hello, I've read conflicting opinions regarding the use of meta keywords. I know Matt Cutts stated a few years ago that Google does not use them as a ranking signal but many still use them. This raises a few questions: 1. Is there any reason to still use meta keywords? 2. Isn't it just a way to let your competitors know what you're optimizing for? 3. How do other search engines treat meta keywords? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | mirel0 -
Description and Title keyword Not showing in Google SERP?
It appears our description and title have disappeared in Goggle and Bing search results. We currently did a update to Magento 1.7 and the robots.txt included this: User-agent: * Disallow: / But that is fixed in Google Webmaster tools and everything else looks good. Here is the site: http://www.oxygenconcentratorstore.com/ Any help would be awesome. Thanks. google_serp.jpg
Technical SEO | | chuck-layton0 -
Ranking product reviews with same keywords and similar
How you would approach keyword optimization for content that people are searching for, and has the same product name, but with the network name on the end, and it’s basically a different phone on each network – or in other cases, it’s almost an identical phone but may have very minor differences. For example, iPhone 4S- sprint vs. iPhone 4S - verizon vs. iPhone 4S at&t How you would attempt to rank for the search terms?
Technical SEO | | kcorten0 -
Different pages first results on same keyword search
Hi, Sometimes Google does not show the page you intended for a certain keyword. Logically you would say that the intended page is not relevant/strong enough. But in my case several pages ranked fine for a long period of time and all of a sudden another less important page gets the highest result on a keyword search. (We are in the camping business) For instance: One of our campsites called Tenuta primero used to rank position 9 in google with page below for a long time (search: 'camping tenuta primero') This was the page we intended to rank with. http://www.suncamp.nl/nl/nl/campings/italie/friuli-venezia-giulia/camping-tenuta-primero/uc19-l1-n797-c13-r115-cp104959/ Now all of a sudden the position for search 'camping tenuta primero' is position 33 with review page below. http://www.suncamp.nl/nl/nl/campings/italie/friuli-venezia-giulia/camping-tenuta-primero/beoordelingen/uc19-l1-n797-c13-r115-cp104959-t22598/ What could have caused this? Pages are in Dutch but main keywords are camping are tenuta primero. Thank you very much in advance! Kind regards, Dennis Overbeek Dennis@acsi.eu | www.suncamp.nl |
Technical SEO | | SEO_ACSI0