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
-
Meta Keywords - Should I define them myself
Hi All, Im sure this has been answered somewhere but I couldn't find it. SEOQuake etc suggest you should define meta keywords. However I was under the impression that this was not best practice Can anyone confirm what I should do/ is best practice? Cheers Bowey
Technical SEO | | CFCU0 -
Should you use the keyword for your page in an image?
Hi there! I am currently working on building up the SEO ranking on a page using a specific keyword - dresses. Within this page, we have an online image library full of dresses which are then added to multiple pages determined by brand, colour, type etc for people to search. I am adding hundreds of images all of dresses - I wanted to know if I name these images using the keyword: for example 'dresses_1, 'dresses_2' - will that have a knock on effect on page I am trying to build up and optimise for the keyword 'dresses'??? Any help is appreciated.
Technical SEO | | Jaybeamer0 -
Keyword domain usage
Hi I have a client who wants some advice on the following and I haven't come up with anything decent yet. So wanted to throw it out here. They own a domain like soccershoes.com which also houses their web site. They have now bought ussoccershoes.com because this US based search term is more popular than simply soccer shoes. How can they utilise this new domain effectively to drive traffic to their main web site? Thanks for any input.
Technical SEO | | yolkcreative0 -
Importance of WMT change of address and problem doing it
Hi, How important is it to submit a change of address in WMT? I say that because I am having problems doing it so wondered if it was worth the hassle in trying to fix it. I am getting the error: "We couldn't verify website.co.uk. To submit a change of address, website.co.uk must be verified using the same method as www.website.co.uk. Add website.co.uk to your account and verify ownership, then try again." I have looked on the web to try and find an answer and have come across 2 suggestions: You might have lost the verification with the redirect. If you used a metatag on the home page, the home page is now redirecting. If you had uploaded a verification text file, that file is probably now gone and redirecting as well. You probably need to re-verify the site. Either re-upload the text file and configure it not to redirect (may be difficult) or use the DNS server verification method. You need to verify the non www. version of the website because that's the way Google like it. Not sure why solution 2 would be necessary but it does seem to be what WMT are getting. Because the site already redirects, 1 would then come in to play. Is it worth persevering with because IT will be getting a long list of stuff to do from me as it is.... Thanks all
Technical SEO | | Houses0 -
Do keywords in url parameter count?
I have a client who is on an older ecommerce platform that does not allow url rewrites in anyway. It would cost a ton of money to custom dev a solution. Anyways right now they have set up a parameter on their product urls to at least get the keyword in there. My question is, will this keyword actually be counted since it is in a parameter? An example url is http://domain.com/Catalog.aspx?Level1=01&Level2=02&C=Product-name-here Does this 'product-name-here' count as having the keyword in the url according to google?
Technical SEO | | webfeatseo0 -
Has any positive or negative effect for the SEO results if the domain contains desired keyword?
Helo! Has any positive or negative effect for the SEO results if the domain contains desired keyword? Thanks for the answer.
Technical SEO | | Brainsum0 -
Google doesn't rank the best page of our content for keywords. How to fix that?
Hello, We have a strange issue, which I think is due to legacy. Generally, we are a job board for students in France: http://jobetudiant.net (jobetudiant == studentjob in french) We rank quite well (2nd or 3rd) on "Job etudiant <city>", with the right page (the one that lists all job offers in that city). So this is great.</city> Now, for some reason, Google systematically puts another of our pages in front of that: the page that lists the jobs offers in the 'region' of that city. For example, check this page. the first link is a competitor, the 3rd is the "right" link (the job offers in annecy), but the 2nd link is the list of jobs in Haute Savoie (which is the 'departement'- equiv. to county) in which Annecy is... that's annoying. Is there a way to indicate Google that the 3rd page makes more sense for this search? Thanks
Technical SEO | | jgenesto0 -
Ecommerce SEO with 130 keywords
Hello everyone, My name is Davys and I'm what you call a newbie...so the question may sound stupid....But where we go. In this campaign I will be targeting around 130 to 150 keywords to my store. So here is the technical question. What is the right way of indexing 150 keywords? Should I attempt to have all 150 going to www.mysite.com or should I break it down into smaller pages if I can put it that way. Like www.mysite.com/pages/bikiniwax for example. Even if I break it down, what is the right amount of keywords that I should SEO per page? Or do 150 pages? Please helppppppppppppppppppppp.... 🙂 Thanks a lot for your help.
Technical SEO | | Davys0