Keyword Density is thought to be an important factor in on-page SEO, but the truth is that when it has been tested it has no correlation with rankings. There are many studies which have shown this to be true, and it makes perfect sense since the natural use of language on a page means that keyword density can vary wildly, especially when synonyms are taken into consideration. It would also be one of the easiest to manipulate so Google has avoided using it in its calculations. Yet Keyword Density is promoted by countless SEOs and SEO software programs. The only time it really matters is in over-optimization and keyword spamming, in which case over using keywords will harm you or having every page with a 'perfect' keyword density could potentially upset Google as it is unnatural.
Mmmm... yes and no. Keyword density was in the early days *very* important. And keyword stuffing was therefore one of the methods to quickly raise through the SERPs... until the search engines realized that people were abusing the system with this, and they started penalizing this practice. Now, keyword density is no longer what it was, and has started losing importance as soon as search engines got smarter and started considering other aspects apart from on-page SEO. Now, of course you CAN rank very high for a keyword that does not even appear on your page (classic example: The Adobe Reader page ranking #1 for the "click here" keyword). But it means a lot of additional work, as your on-page SEO does not contribute to the keyword "weight". Search Engines are not so smart that they can understand the text and identify whether your links are related to the text or not. A reasonable keyword density (not more than 5-6%) DOES contribute to your ranking, specially if you use those keywords in the title, headers, etc. It makes SENSE that if a page is related to a certain topic then the word will appear through the text, it would be unnatural if you are supposed to rank well for cars the word "cars" does not appear on the page at all. A different thing altogether is that it is 50% of the text. Keyword density is no longer the main factor, as it was in the beginning, but it still counts. And it might be the difference between ranking #1 instead of #2. What is the actual weight on ranking? Unless you know the Google algorithm (which you don't), you cannot be certain. You can go without it, but at your own risk. I personally would not disregard it.
I have to agree with SEOTranslator. While the overall keyword density of a page no longer carries the weight that it once did, it IS still a ranking factor. The difference is that that particular ranking factor is now weighted much less in the overall algorithm. Not only is that particular factor likely weighted much less, but there are also many more factors in the overall algorithm than there used to be. So it's importance has been diluted greatly. But it does affect rankings. You have to remember that it's never any one thing you do in SEO that lead to good rankings. It's lots of small things done well that when taken as a whole make a page rank well. And as he said, where it is VERY important is within individual HTML elements that are themselves ranking factors... like the <title>, <h1>, <h2>s, anchor text, etc. The importance of density within these elements gets magnified. The ONLY thing I disagree with him on is "a reasonable keyword density (not more than 5-6%)". 5-6% keyword density reads like total spam if you're talking the main content of the page like a post or article. That is repeating the same word every 15-20 words... Write a 500 word article with 5-6% density and read it back. It will read like crap. If you write naturally without thinking about SEO, you'll end up with a 1-2% density max.
Some good advice above. Personally, when I'm publishing a new page, if I could do only one thing SEO-wise, it would be to use my keyword(s) wisely in the title tag. Of course, we try to do more, but in my opinion that's the "biggie".
Can you rank without keywords throughout the page? Yes. Would it be easier to rank if the page was optimized with the keywords? Yes, most definitely. This makes it easier to write GOOD content that isn't specifically composed for search engines.. meaning you can write to get links naturally and using the keywords in the URL will even get you relevant anchor text even if people just use the URL as the anchor text. *headnod* the title tag is really influential.. at least it is right now
Nice conversation! Thanks for sharing. According to me Keyword Density is good, if it do not follow spamming.
I never look at keyword density. And I use my keyphrase only a few times in text, of course its important to add as H1 tag etc but in the articles it doesn't matter
The authority voices in SEO would disagree. From Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz: "Keyword Density - 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." Further reading... http://www.miislita.com/fractals/keyword-density-optimization.html
Keyword density will help to rank the more keywords. My suggestion is, don't use more repeated keywords.
Keyword page density is a measure of the relative frequency of the word in the text expressed as a percentage. The optimum value for keyword density is 5-7%.
Not so sure I agree, even with Rand... for instance, I went back to my old Squidoo lenses (back from many years ago, which were really shitty) and increased the keyword density but did nothing more. As a result, they're pulling in organic visits for these terms as opposed to sitting on the dashboard with 0 views per week. It's kind of illogical for it not to work - a page has to get recognized for what it is somehow, even beyond internal and external links...whether its by site-wide keyword usage, synonyms or anything similar..
For large sites with millions of links maybe... but if you write a page on dogs, don't expect to rank for cars...
I guess keyword density is much needed so that we can give priority to the much used keywords by the users.
I knew I was doing something wrong! The myth of keyword density has to do with the magic number. Everyone knows the numbers. Personally, I shoot for 3% - 4% but I don't get worked up about 2% or 6%. The title tag is still quite important. The importance of keyword density isn't a myth. It's importance is just exaggerated (except the title tag).
I have my keyword density around 3%, but I notice that the number one google result when I search on my keywords has a density of around 10%. They also have way more backlinks than me, though, so I am focusing on backlinks.
Keyword density should not be confused with the topics you discuss on your page. Of course talking about dogs will mean you are vastly more likely to rank for 'dogs' over 'cars'. However, that in no way means there is an optimal keyword density for the word 'dogs' on the page. Things like having the keyword in the title, in image alt tags, using semantic related text (like 'golden retriever') and having a site which is largely about the topic are all factors that matter. Having a specific keyword density show no correlation with rankings. That's what the studies have shown. Anything else is just hearsay and lack of understanding of what keyword density is and how search engines works.