Single-words high keyword density. How many is too many.
-
Dear All SeoMoz users,
I'm a web designer for some time now. Doing some basic SEO from time to time.
I just started up with brand new website.
The website is not ranking very well for 2nd line keyword (keyword density < 2%), but the problem is not ranking at all for for my main keyword.
I think the problem is the keyword density. For phrases that are 3-words long my keyword density is less than 4%.
I suspect the problem is that keyword density for single-word phrases is between 8-12%. Please note that the 3 words with highest keyword density make my main 3-words long keyword.
Is this the case? Should I be avoiding keyword density larger than 4% for single-word phrases as well?
What is you experiences is this matter? Could my single-word phrases be treated as keyword stuffing by Google?
-
I guess it would depend on what the single word and the long phrase is. There's no blanket answer for every situation.
-
Hi Marisa,
Thanks for you answer. I'm sure that 8-12% is high.
Please note that we are talking about single-words that have this kind of keyword density.
I'm just wondering does this single word high density may affect long phrase as well?
-
Hi Eyepaq,
Thanks for taking the time to anwer.
I get the point. I fully understand the keyword density is not most important factor, or even not important at all.
I just noticed that I'm ranking for other keyword (used less time in not used in Title, Desc, H1 etc.. - just in content).
..and i'm not ranking at all (not within first 100) for the main keyword which is used in H1, H2, Title, Desc, alt and content - 10 times in total
Please note that all of the keywords have similar difficulty score, and there are relatively low competition.
I was just wondering maybe this has something to do with keyword stuffing / keyword density. There must be a reason why Google not including this website in SERP.
-
In my opinion I think you should ditch the keyword density measurement in your SEO approach - it doesn't make sense to focus on it, you can focus on more important factors that you'll help you rank.
Now the keyword must be in the content - that's for sure but you just need to have the keyword present and maybe use it in the url , in the title and h1 if it makes sense - never go overboard, don't stuff the page with the keyword but you are going way to far in trying to get the magical % number for any keyword as far as density in order to rank.
have some internal links with the keyword in different forms pointing to the page that you want to rank. Have some good not spammy external links for this page that you want to rank.
Don't over optimize as this can harm you - over optimization is worst then no optimization at all.
The bottom line is that in my opinion your focus is on a non important element - and fixing the magic number won't help you rank anyway.
Hope it helps.
-
I think you should definitely be avoiding a 4% keyword density unless it truly is natural for your site. 8-12% is WAY TOO HIGH! It doesn't take much for Google to consider something to be keyword stuffing. Read your copy out loud to someone. If the keyword placement sounds forced and unnatural to them, it probably will to google as well.
Your problem probably isn't lack of a good keyword percentage on that page, but rather, lack of links with that anchor text pointing to that page.
This video by Matt Cutts can really open your eyes and help you realize that the old-school of thought regarding keyword density no longer applies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk4qgQdp2UA
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
-
My Top Keywords Ranking Going Down (continuously)
hi,
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | seotoolshero06
I have an affiliate website where most of my articles are about product Reviews. And it was all going good before 15 february. After that Most of my keywords that were in top 3 places in SERP loses their position.
One of the keyword that was hurted badly after is "best coffee beans".
I have checked the search console and their is no warning issues or something suspicious. I have improved the onpage again, fixing every issue i got from audit tools, from speed to optimize images, titles to alt text, in short everything i could or that can be improved. But still coffee beans keyword is going down every passing day.
I am so worried and want you guys to please help me regarding this. Thanks2 -
Multiple Websites Under Single Brand
My company has many websites having similar content . They are into the retail business and sell manufactured homes. Since they sell different manufacturer homes products having different specification in different states that's why they have created many websites. Will duplicate design and similar content on some of the pages across multiple website will cause issues in Google ranking.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | christmaslaserlights0 -
Whats up with google scrapping keywords metrics
I've done a bit of reading on google now "scrapping" the keywords metrics from the analytics. I am trying to understand why the hell they would do that? To force people to run multiple adwords campaign to setup different keywords scenario? It just doesn't make sense to me...If i am a blogger or i run an ecommerce site...and i get a lot of visit regarding a particular post through a keyword they clicked on organically. Why would Google wanna hide this from people? It's great Data for us to carry on writing relevant content that appeals to people and therefore serves the need of those same people? There is the idea of doing White Hat SEO and focus on getting strong links and great content etc... How do we know we have great content if we are not seeing what is appealing to people in terms of keywords and how they found us organically... Is google trying to squash SEO as a profession? What do you guys think?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | theseolab0 -
Is there a danger linking to and from one website too many times?
Basically my webdeveloper has suggested that instead of using a subfolder to create an English and Korean version of the site I should create two different websites and then link them both together to provide the page in English, or in Korean, which ever the case may be. My immediate reaction is that search engines may perceive this kind of linking to be manipulative, as you can imagine there will be a lot of links (One for every page). Do you think it is OK to create two webpages and link them together page by page? Or do you think that the site will get penalized by search engines for link farming or link exchanging. Regards, Tom
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | CoGri0 -
Sure, but what about non-keyword rich anchor text links?
Could spammy non-keyword rich anchor text liks help your website rank? Of course, there's been a lot of discussion around Google's update of its link scheme. Specifically, they target press releases with do-follow links on keyword-rich anchor text and "Large-scale article marketing or guest posting campaigns with keyword-rich anchor text links". Well, that leaves the question unanswered, what if you're doing these spammy linking techniques, but on non-keyword rich anchor text, such as "click here", "find information", and "click here". Will you still get smacked down by Google then? Given that links on non-keyword anchor text can still help increase domain authority, it seems like Google left a door open here for large scale publication of a certain class of spammy links that can still assist rank, no? Also, in answering, please distinguish between best practice, and effective. For instance, purchasing links isn't a good practice, but it can still be an effective technique. While spammy links on non-keyword rich anchor text is certainly not a good practice, is it nonetheless effective?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | ExploreConsulting0 -
One Blog Comment Now on Many Pages of The Same Domain
My question is I blog commented on this site http://blogirature.com/2012/07/01/half-of-200-signals-in-googles-ranking-algorithm-revealed/#comment-272 under the name "Peter Rota". For some reason the recent comments is a site wide link so, bascially my link from my website is pretty much on each page of their site now. I also noticed that the anchor text for each one of my links says "Peter Rota". This is my concern will google think its spammy if im on a lot of pages on a same site for one blog comment, and will I be penailzied for the exact same anchor text on each page? If this is the case what could I do in trying to get the links removed? thanks
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | ilyaelbert0 -
DropBox.com High PA & DA?
"What’s up with these dl.dropbox.com High PA & DA links?" You know, It's frustrating to spend almost an entire day getting a few great link backs... then to find out your competitor has hundreds of cheap & easy link backs for the keyword you are going for with greater Authority [according to SEOmoz's OSE]. So I ran a search on one of our top competitors in Open Site Explorer to gather an idea of where the heck they are getting all of their links. Please feel free to copy my actions so you can see what I see. Run a search in OSE for www[dot]webstaurantstore[dot]com. Click on the ‘Anchor Text’ Tab. Click on the first Anchor Text Term, which should be ‘restaurant supplies’ :: Then it will expand, click on the ‘View more links and details in the inbound links section.’ As you scroll down the list you will notice that they have a bunch of linking pages from dl.dropbox.com, all of them are .pdb files, for their targeted Anchor Text, restaurant supplies. Q: So my question is can someone please elaborate on what .pdb files are and how they are getting this to work for them so well? Also you will notice, on the expanded Anchor Text Page, that their 6<sup>th</sup> most powerful link for this phrase (restaurant supplies) seems to be linked straight from a porn site, I thought Google does not rank adult sites like this? Q: For future reference, does anyone know legitimate websites to maybe file an SEO manipulation complaint? Thanks!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Burkett.com0 -
Link Building with links in footer of Word Press Themes- Is This BLack Hat??
I See lots of free word press themes with links in footer like Kids Headphones | Colombia Classifieds | Broadway Tickets Is this a valid white hat link building method? What if the theme looked like a particular industry and the links related to the industry would that be better?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | DavidKonigsberg0