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?

Keyword density is of course the percentage that a keyword or key phrase shows up in the content of your website. If the word “cars” shows up 10 times in a 200 word article, then the density for that word is 5%. Additionally, if the words “red cars” show up 5 times, you still have a 5% density because the phrase still takes up 10 words out of 200 words.

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.

It’s also important that you don’t overdo this work with keywords, and that you take a more moderate approach with your SEO. People take the concept of keyword density way too far sometimes. The result is content that looks like spam to the search engines, and also looks like spam to your visitors who become quickly turned off and click on the back button.

Additionally, don’t forget that besides the actual article content on a webpage, there are other areas where keywords can be included. The best example of this is the anchor text used in your navigation links, however there are other opportunities such as your footer, any sidebars your META tags and more.

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.

Tags: Online Advertising

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