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
-
Buying Domains with Keywords but no PA, no content
MOZ Community, I am trying to gauge both the potential upside and downside of buying a few (relatively long) URLs that encompass some new keywords that are surfacing in our industry and creating permanent redirects to our branded website. [This wasn't my idea!] These URLs haven't previously had any content or owners so their domain authority is low. Will Google still ding us for this behavior? I hope not but I worry that there might be some penalty for having a bunch of redirects pointing at our site. I have read that google will penalize you for buying content-rich sites with high DA and redirecting those URLs to your site but I am unclear about this other approach. It seems like a fairly mundane (and fruitless) play. I tried to explain that we won't reap any SEO rewards for owning these URLS (if there is no content) but that wasn't really heard. Thanks for any resources or information you can share! I would appreciate any resources.
Technical SEO | | ColleenHeadLight0 -
Keywords Declination
In German we have declination, i.e. we have the keyword "sicherheitskritische Systeme" which can get "sicherheitskritischer Systeme" when declinated. How does Google handle this? Do I have to rewrite all texts, so that the keywords are not declinated? (At least MozPro's ranking algorithm is sensitive and did not accept sicherheitskritischer" for the keyword sicherheitskritische"...) Rewriting might lead to quite awful sentences! Thnaks a lot Andy
Technical SEO | | a2stucki0 -
Keyword Targeting with Dynamic Pages
We have a large e-commerce website made with .net. so all of our category and item pages are made dynamic. Most things like title, some of the words and a few other things are done with scripts. I want to be able to target certain words and have more customized words on certain pages. Has anyone dealt with this? I know .net is pretty common so I can't be a unique case.
Technical SEO | | EcommerceSite0 -
Website disappeared from Google organic keyword searches.
We have an auto repair company as a client www.autorepairauroratilden.com who for the better part of a year their website had ruled the 1st page organic Google search results. Their website, Blogs, Facebook, and Twitter all came up on page one for their keyword searches. On May 13th, it all came to a screeching halt. The website is nowhere to be found for any of their keywords (example: brake repair Aurora.) There are a couple of blogs on page 2 but it’s nothing like it was prior to May 13th. On May 12th we published 5 branded websites for this client – Chrysler, Ford, Honda, Jeep, and Toyota, all on separate URL’s. All the page titles, keywords, and descriptions were specifically branded to the individual websites as were all the keywords. Since the beginning of June we’ve taken down the 5 branded websites and we’ve gone through our keywords on the auto repair website. The website was last crawled on June 11th. We still do not have any page 1 placement or for that matter any page placement. I checked 10 pages out. We have a 2nd auto repair client that has been running their website as well as their 5 branded websites a couple of months longer than this client and we’ve had no problems with any of their websites and keyword search results. How do we fix this?
Technical SEO | | markindenver0 -
Watermarking Keywords
I've been viewing an seo companies website that claims to get small business websites to Google Page 1 for free or starting at $150/mo. I'v noticed that on all the website this company has done work on they include in the footer (usually as a watermark) all the keyword phrases. There don't apprear to be any sites that have been penalized. Isn't this poor SEO practice? I've included a screen shot of what I'm talking about. I just want to be clear. Thank you for your input. XnQUc.png
Technical SEO | | JulB0 -
Seperate Pages for similar keywords from SEO standpoint
Should I create separate pages with unique URLS for very similar keywords. If the answer is yes - how do i ensure uniqueness of content? For eg. Lets say the keywords in question are:- send money to china transfer money to china money transfer to china online money transfer to china. Thanks.
Technical SEO | | himanshupatil0 -
Long tail keywords and duplicate content (product description)
Hi <acronym title="Search Engine Optimization">SEO</acronym> pro's, how are you doing these days? Hope everything is fine... Let's get down to business: I've got a little question about ecommerce sites with duplicate content (product descriptions). I'm already ranking top #1 for exact keyword matche's (did a lot of backlink work with exact keyword). That's fine. The question is: long tail keywords still getting lower results than the competitors, because they published the content first. How to beat them? What I need to do/work to outrank competitors on long tail keywords? (I really need this because almost keywords/products from my niche only have 10% of exact search's). Hope someone can give me a word of light on this! Thanks!
Technical SEO | | azaiats20 -
Keyword domains
Hi everyone. Two questions regarding keyword domains (e.g. "widgets.com") If we have to choose a domain with an extra word, does it make a difference to have the added word before or after? E.g. "my-widgets.com" vs "widgets-now.com" Does it make a difference if the extra word is a generic vs a 'real' word? E.g. "my-widgets.com" vs "japanese-widgets.com" Thanks a lot for your feedback!
Technical SEO | | hectorpn0