Is it good to use the keyword you're trying to rank for in every sentence possible of your content, as long as it makes sense? What is a good measure of keyword density?
Not, don't use it in every sentence. 5%-7% is the traditional standard for key word density. I like for my key phrase to appear twice in a 300 word paragraph.
Thanks for that information. I'm getting conflicting information. Some people said as high as 20%. I found that if you use 20% keywords it doesn't even read right. 5% to 7% sounds more reasonable to me, however using it twice in 300 words doesn't equal even 1%.
Dependso n the length of your key phrase. I usually use 2 or 3 word phrases, so putting that exact phrase in a 300 word article twice is usually about 2-3%. But I also add a couple synonyms, and the same pharse but out of order as well. I don't like to go overboard. I think 20% looks way too spammy. although we're optimizaing for search engines, it should look natural, and be optimized for humans as well.
I normally use 10% keyword density. But if you have really short articles just 3-7% will also do well.
20%? That's too much, I think. Well, this is from a writer's perspective. I prefer to write articles with lesser density requirement. You can write better and the articles read smoothly, you won't even notice the presence of keywords. Got an assignment with 10% density and I found the articles, well, yeah, spammy.
using your keyword in every sentence is considered as spamming,especially if you are writing a long article or for content on your website. You should keep your readers in mind when writing your content and not put them off them with repetitive words.
2-4% is the best, anything more than that just makes google aware of something being fishy. I am talking from experience
I totally agree. In as much as I want to trim down the keyword density, I cannot do so when I'm writing for a client. It's his request. I should deal with it
They usually say 2%-8% for the entire page, with 10% in the upper third of the page, and in the title and first sentence.
I try to stay in the 4-7% area but you can also use your keywords in Alt text, file name, etc. So that may skew the density some. I use http://tools.seobook.com/general/spider-test/index.php to look at my pages. It gives the keyword density for a single word as well as groups of words. Basically, it gives you an idea of how your site might look to a search engine bot.
this is great information everyone, thank you! the header of all of my pages are the same, consisting of 3 occurences of my keyword. One in the H1 at the top, again in the top navigation and then one more time in a H2. Each page has approx. 500 words and my keyword phrase appears around 15 times per page. Can this hurt my google score and should I count these keywords in the header for each page? Currently I am running at around 3 - 5% keyword density and it doesn't seem spammy when you read it. I just want to be sure.
if possible your meta data (title, description, keywords - if you use this) should be unique for every page. that way each page is optimized for it's intended purpose. - not sure if that's what you meant by header. you may have meant a graphical header or include.
I would suggest optimal keyword density varies depending on factors such as topic, vertical, amount of content etc etc. You would be best not to worry too much about keyword density and focus more on semantics and making sure your keywords are in the right places. Write your text for the user and then go from there.
using your targeted keyword in every sentence of your content is consider to be spamming and it is not a good seo practice. all you have to do is build a quality content and make your content natural and unique
keyword density depend on your content bcz if you have not original content means you copy and past other site content on your site and some modified so you can put 7% or 10% keywords density so its not useful so make your original content and use keywords in content so its not effect like black hat
I think 4 - 8% is best... May be 10% maximum limit.. But more than that is stuffing and considered as spam.
Ahh sorry I wasn't clear. What I meant specifically was header, graphically speaking. But I think I get it now... I guess the difference of 3 more occurences at the top of my page will not make too much difference since the content is original (written by me) and it doesn't read spammy at all. Many thanks everyone!