Everybody involved in the world of SEO has their own opinion about keyword density. Some people think that keyword density doesn’t exist while other people believe in specific, exact densities to achieve high rankings. So what is the real truth about this topic, and how can it potentially improve or damage your positioning in the search engines?
When someone mentions keyword density for SEO, they are talking about the percentage that a particular word is found within the content of a page. A single word keyword used 5 times in 500 words has a 1% density. However, keep in mind that a 4 word key phrase used 5 times in 500 words actually has a 4% density because of the number of words used.
When SEO first began being widely practiced, the common belief was that a specific density was necessary for high search engine rankings. Therefore all of the SEO practitioners out there began trying to find the specific percentage that worked the best. Some people were thinking that it was in the 2 to 3% range while other people thought that you could use much higher percentages, in the range of 10%.
However, these days we know that for SEO there is not a specific, targeted keyword percentage that is going to improve your rankings. There is no exact science, and it’s unwise to try to achieve a specific keyword density just because you think it will improve your rankings.
Instead, what you should try to do is to include your keywords naturally throughout your content. You can certainly try hard to ensure you include them and include them in the right places, and you can even set basic guidelines to help you achieve this. For example, you can try to use a keyword once per every paragraph or two instead of focusing on a rigid percentage for a keyword density.
More important is to ensure that you use the words you are targeting for SEO, and to make sure that you do not overuse them. It’s entirely way too easy to overdo yourself while pursuing a keyword density. If you think you have used a phrase too much, then you probably have. Your visitors will be turned off, and you can even get punished in the rankings of the search engines as a result.
Another important thing that you’ll want to remember is that besides your content, other areas of your website can be affecting the level of keyword density that you have. For example, the terms used in the links within your menus show up in the search engines, as does the description you enter in your META tags and the title you have at the top of the browser.
Keyword density has proven to be more fiction than fact. Yes, you want to include your keywords and include them often enough so that you get “credit” for them. But there is no such thing as a perfect keyword density for SEO, and you shouldn’t force keywords in to try to meet any precise figure.
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