Keyword Density

Hi

After the panda/penguin updates and all the talk of keyword density affecting ranking, I worked to improve this, it's now 4%, okay so not as low as some sites, but my question is if this is true then why is my main competitor who has keyword density (for the same keyword) of 7% on page one and I'm jumping between pages 2 and 5?

Also I have more back links than them and more contents, all of which is unique. I always ranked above them before the April updates.

Any advise would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Dee

 

Google consider domain age, authority sites backlinks also. If domain age is not the fact, may be your competitor is getting backlinks from authority sites. Try to get links from the sites your competitor getting. Keyword density is good to your site considering your competitor.

 

When you say authority sites can you give any examples of any UK travel authority sites?

I know they have paid back links, I know that because some of their back links are from sites that don't offer free listings. I also know they have a yahoo directory listing. I don't want to start going down that route though because I was page one for 4 years (above them) and never once paid for back links. My main focus has always been in providing good quality, unique contents. Yes I have build up my backlinks too but as I say never paid.

 

Though I have no collection of UK based travel authority sites list, you can check your competitor backlinks source by using any link checker tool. Once get the source site you may try to get the same links for your site.

 

Which is the best backlink checker? I have tried many and a lot of them show 0 backlinks which is obviously a fault with the checkers. Others only show a few.

I though sites with a high keyword density and whom have paid backlinks were amongst those being penalised but it certainly doesn't seem that way.

I even thought of decreasing my keyword density further but it seems pointless, as I say they have 7% compared to my 4% and it's not doing them any harm!

Google obviously doesn't like something I'm doing but for the life of me I don't know what, I had some reciprocal links on the site but I even ditched them and whilst my ranking increased initially, it's now dropped again, currently to page 5.

 

I would consider using a keyword density of around 2% for your main keyword within a 700-900 word article. Quality content is key here!

 

Am also interested in knowing a software that can identify the source of backlinks for my competitors..One that works.

 

After Panda & penguin updates its not good to keep keyword density more than 3% on a web page.

 

check all links if those are good links, about keyword density I believe 4% can be consider as stuffing or too much I rather go with 2% only.

 

I agree with you. Before even 5% Keyword Density is still considered normal, but the rules has changed. Unique and quality content with social media interactions is now trendsetter.

 

Your competitor is poor in case of on-page optimization it doesn't mean that he or she won't rank, there are many factors which are adopted by Google.. if they are week in on-page optimization then it may be that they are doing off-page optimization effectively, their domain age is very aged, they posting content regularly etc.

 

The keyword density should not exceed that 6 percent, that's maximum density as per the Google Algorithm.

 

Thanks

Well I know people will think I'm biased but I do believe that I surpass them in most areas both on-page and off-page, I have more unique and quality contents, my contents changes almost daily, I have more back links, and now I have taken your advise and lowered my keyword density, I am using social media too. The only obvious thing they have over me is domain age, theirs is almost 10 years older than mine.

What is the best for checking keyword density, I have ran online checkers as well as using SEO Quake and the online ones always show a higher density than SEO Quake does,?

 

So you are disagreeing with the other posters? others said even 4% is too high.

 

Keyword Density is a measurement of the number of times your keyword or keyword phrase appears on the page of your article, versus the number of words on the page… a ratio in other words. We’ve covered placing your keyword or keyword phrase in the title tag, the description tag and the heading tags, now let’s cover your content. While strategically placing your keywords or phrases in the beginning and end of your article, avoid keyword stuffing and make sure you sprinkle a few variations of your keyword or phrase throughout your site where it looks natural and makes sense.

 

Keyword density is the percentage of times a keyword or phrase appears on a web page compared to the total number of words on the page. In the context of search engine optimization keyword density can be used as a factor in determining whether a web page is relevant to a specified keyword or keyword phrase.

 

I understand "what " keyword density is I need to know while decreasing mine is making me drop lower and lower down the serps? My main keyword had a density now of 2.69% (looking at the above 4% was stated as too high). going from 4% to 2.69% has seen me drop from page 4-5 to page 11-12, that is all I did decrease the density for one particular keyword, I deliberately didn't do any other changes so I could judge if the decrease had any effect.

Anyone got any advice?

Take Care

Dee

 

Thank you Dee. This post helpful for me. Now i'm clear keyword density.

 

Keywords density is very important thing in SEO and every should keep in mind if he want to get good ranking position in SERP, in my opinion keywords density should be 4 to 5% of the content.

 

google considers many things apart from these things, so you need to do good amount of research for that.