Importance of Keyword density?
-
Short, Sweet and easy for you guys!!
How important is keyword density???
Cheers
-
Also see Rand's recent update to the search engine ranking factors. Keyword usage in <title>, <h1> and on-page content are all mentioned and measured.</p></title>
-
Well, Google is obsessed with returning the best 'relevant' results they can. That's what makes people want to use their engine, is the quality of the results. I can't point to an article where they say "we're using LSI" but I guarantee you that a building full of PhDs at Google is doing everything they can to increase the quality of the results they return. LSI (or something like it) has to be a component (if not the major driving force).
-
@Mike Scanlin
Are search engines like Google currently using LSI? I tried doing some research on the topic but had trouble finding anything actually published by Google (except in their patent section). Either way, very interesting topic!
-
Hey, the pro term target tool will give you a page grade for a keyword and is a good way to learn about optimising a page for a given term. It's not a perfect science, but it will point you in the right direction.
-
Thank you this is very helpful,
So Keyword density is a myth then?
-
Keyword usage, as EliasAQ describes, is a best practice. However focusing on keyword density (the idea that a keyword ideally must comprise x percentage of the page text) is essentially a myth. This document explains this in more detail: http://guides.seomoz.org/chapter-4-basics-of-search-engine-friendly-design-and-development.
I use keywords in strategic parts of my page but aside from that I just try to write naturally and for the target audience.
Keyword density is important in the sense of never "overdoing" it. Hammering on a keyword over and over is likely to get your page flagged as spam (and scare off your visitors.)
-
HI Wazza1985,
In my experience keyword density is a very important factor. However, it's more important to ensure that your target keywords appear in key places, such as:
- Page title
- H1
- H2
- H3
- Main body text
- Internal and external pointing to your page
- Image alt tags
- etc
Also don't forget that content is for users as well as search engines so forcing keywords into the content to increase density could devalue it.
I hope this answers your question.
-
Thanks Mike very interesting point
-
While it used to be possible to keyword stuff content to game the search engines, that is less true today. I'm a believer in LSI (latent semantic indexing) whereby the SEs understand the meaning of a page even if they keyword isn't exactly present. SEs today know about synonyms and can extract meaning from text, allowing for creative and interesting use of language. Without tedious keyword repetition the content you create will be of more interest and read better to a search user –increasing the user experience.
I take the viewpoint that you should write for humans first, and then review the content to make sure the keyword is present at least a little bit. I would not go so far as to say you should have 1 occurrence of the keyword per 150 words, or any other hard and fast density metric. But that's just me.
Also, I think the external factors (links with appropriate anchor text, and variations of that anchor text) are more important than on-page factors like keyword density. Just my opinion, although I do rank well for many phrases and I ignore keyword density (other than making sure the keyword is present in some minimal fashion on the page that is optimized for it).
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
-
Value of using spaces or no spaces on product category page varient keywords
Hello, all fellow Mozzers,
On-Page Optimization | | JamesDavison
I have taken over a project and this account, so can't change the username according to MOZ.🙃 We run an eCommerce website, and to me, some of the content is conflicting as some pages have more information content than what I would put in a commerce page, but this is how the boss wants it to work, personally, I would separate the content out.
The page I'm working on:
https://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/tyres/205-70-14.html
and this is an example of the rest of these types of pages, I will be tackling:
https://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/tyres/125-15.html I was tasked to improve SEO ranking, when using the MOZ page grader I had a score of 24 out of 27 83% SEO score and 3-page problems. 7th position in Google for the search term 205/70 R14 As it is a generic product listing page, It was pointless to add to the URL and the Internal links I can't reduce as these are links to products, so I went to reduce the
keyword stuffing and making the page content more natural, this improved the page to 25 out of 27, 87% SEO score and 2-page problems. Improvement to 3rd position in Google, but he wants to chase 1st place to be above his competitors, which is fair enough. It turns out that in the past, they have used this type of page to try and get a high ranking for several search terms, as it is a different variation on a tyre size terms are:
205/70 R14, 205/70R14, 205/70 R 14
205/70 X 14, 205/70X14, 205/70 X14
and so on for all the different ways you can search for this tyre size. He is also convinced Google will see these as different search terms, and while I agree to an extent, this causes Keyword Stuffing on the page, which in turn was harming the rankings. Each product listed on the page already has its own title 205/70 R14, 205/70 HR14 and so on, so my question is. What is the best practice for writing content on these types of pages to gain high rankings for several Keywords, and what value does writing the same keyword with spaces and no spaces have? Any help or advice is welcome, so I have a better understanding of how to approach this for this page and the rest of the site. Cheers Mal0 -
Is still important video markup scheme
The question is about if is important or relevant for SEO video scheme i mean like hacing de pluggin of Video Seo of yoast actually or if it is out of date or not relevant for seo that pluggin and in that case if it is better to uninstall that pluggin and video scheme provided by it in order to improve page speed and eliminate unnecesarry pluggins if that is the case?
On-Page Optimization | | maestrosonrisas0 -
Keyword stuffing when brand includes keyword
Hi If you have managed to combine brand name with primary target keyword do you still need pay attention to on page keyword stuffing ? since one would expect plenty of brand references in the body copy ? Or is it still best to reduce instances of the keyword aspect ? For example if site is called 'Franks Service Centres' and you have lots/too many instances of 'service centres' in the body copy a/c to MA on-page grader, should you reduce some instances of the kw ? All Best
On-Page Optimization | | Dan-Lawrence
Dan0 -
Dashes "-" in keyword?
Just running over the page/keyword analyzer and Moz picked up the fact that my link and title are not the same as the keyword I am targeting. I am targeting the keyword "Battlefield 4 CD Key" However my title (and therefore link) are Battlefield 4 CD-Key. Note the dash. Does the dashes matter in SEO or should I try to remove them and have continuity through all of the page.
On-Page Optimization | | MrPenguin0 -
Title Tag, Are the Keywords Plucked out of it?
We are working on redoing our site and I read the article from rand about how to properly format title tags, here http://www.seomoz.org/blog/tactical-seo-how-many-termsphrases-should-i-target-on-a-single-page He showed how he could take 6 keywords and use them all in the title tag: The title Tag:
On-Page Optimization | | donford
Ted Baker London - Men's Clothing Collections 2005-2008 | Sartorialmoz.org The keywords:
Ted Baker
Ted Baker London
Ted Baker Clothing
Ted Baker Mens
Ted Baker Mens Clothing
Ted Baker Mens Collection So what I am wondering is the keyword Ted Baker Mens Collection actually getting found. In this case we are dealing with a contraction (men's) and a plural form of a keyword (collections). Is it plucked out from the title tag above?
Like this? Ted Baker London - Men's Clothing Collections 2005-2008 | Sartorialmoz.org In his article he goes on to say the biggest mistake he sees is, unfortunately exactly the way our site was built 6 years ago. That is people doing this: Ted Baker, Ted Baker London, Ted Baker Clothing, Ted Baker Men's Clothing, Ted Baker Clothing Collection - Buy Online Now at Manamialameseo.com Our site does just that, while we are PR 4 and get decent traffic for the business we are in, we are doing a huge update with new pages, information, and most importantly trying to get all the SEO the best as possible. I want to make sure before we make these what could be huge impact changes that search engines do in fact Pluck the keywords from the title tag, and they are not required to be together. Thank you for any thoughts, answers and most importantly your time. Example following this formula: Our Top 3 Keywords:
Molded Rubber
Rubber Molding
Custom Molded Rubber Our Old way:
Title: Custom Molded Rubber, Rubber Molding, Molded Rubber
The new way:
Title: Custom Molded Rubber - Molding Services | OurSite.com0 -
Homepage Hogging Too Many Keyword Ranks?
Hello: I've been the publisher and SEO for Indie Rock Cafe since starting it in 2007. It's done great, and has #1 - #5 positions in Google for many strong keywords like "best new albums", "best new bands", "top new bands", "popular indie rock songs", and so on. However, for many of the results, the homepage keeps popping up over and over again. I thought I'd done everything right to get other pages on the site to rank for top keywords. Another potential issue is that I expected the homepage to have a 6 PR by now, but it seems stuck on 5. Any ideas? Insight from SEOs and experts is always enlightening and helpful, so thank you in advance for your thoughts and advice.
On-Page Optimization | | holdtheonion0 -
Keyword placement on home page or throughout the website
OK, I find the courage to ask this because there is not supposed to be a dumb question. Like all of us, I want my website to rank great with a particular keyword. Do I have to use this keyword only on my home page (the start page which I want to appear on top Google results), or does it make a difference if I use the keyword on several articles that I post on my website. These articles all have seperate links. Eg i want the www.website.com to be found by Google, but this website contains www.website.com/link1.html, www.website.com/link2.html.. etc. Will keyword usage on link1.html, link2.html etc be relevant so that www.website.com is found by Google? Or is every single page for itself? Hope I have explained that well and I would really appreciate your feedback.
On-Page Optimization | | polyniki0 -
Do keywords ride solo or do they have sidecars?
"No man is an island", so say brother John Donne. But, my fellow SEO-ers, is the same true of keywords? That is... deep breath... If I am ranking as number one for a short-tail keyword, like for example: "fruit salad", does that have any sway on the rankings for other longer tail keywords, like for example, "tropical fruit salad london" or "cheap fruit salad", or is every keyword that we would track in our campaigns completely independent with rankings dependant on work done on that sole keyword? Thanks for your advice in advance.
On-Page Optimization | | RobertHill0