How much should be the keyword density?

Suppose the article contains 1000 words and the keyword phrase is of four words..like "cheap auto insurance quotes"

Then how much time can I repeat this phrase in the article??

Thanks.

 

This link may help you: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1132930&page=2

 

Thanks tara..that answered my question completely..

 

Remember most of the ideas are just guesses, and people have had success with different ratios

 

There's no perfect keyword density percentage. It's a myth.

The more important thing to to focus on only two or three phrases per page. Then try to use those phrases as much as you can while still making the text sound natural. That's perfect density.

 

I would say 3-5 percent for one keyphrase per page

 

The rule of thumb is "the same as the top 10 competitors returned in the SERPs".

And each SE is different so if you optimize for Google, you lose Yahoo.

 

Actually, this is exactly what I said in the link I posted above.

It's easy to see that there is no magic number because people, who gave acutal percentages, all gave quite different answers. The problem is, SEO is relative to the web site's topic, competition, and overall goal (among other factors).

We can all only speak of our own experience...and my experience may be completely different than the next person's. We would be foolish to adjust our web site's keyword density to what someone else tells us will work, as it likely won't apply to your site at all...unless you are in the same niche market.

 

This actually makes sense. Always do what the top in serps are doing.

 

It seems like it could make sense, but I did a little test to show you how it will likely not work if you 'do what the top in serps are doing'.

I searched a keyword that we optimize our sites for. The competition is 633,000. We are positioned in the #3 and #10 positions (with 2 different sites; each with its own relevant, original content, of course). I have marked our sites in bold red below.

Here are my findings with regard to keyword density in the top 11 Google results. I went to #11 because the #10 site has the highest keyword density of all, and I wanted to show that #11 has the exact density as the #1 position...meaning that the #10 positioned web site is not last on the page due to the fact that it has the highest keyword density. Make sense?

Site #1 - 0% keyword density (word does not appear on page)
Site #2 - 0% keyword density (word does not appear on page)
Site #3 - 1.16% keyword density (word appears 2 times on page)
Site #4 - 0% keyword density (word does not appear on page)
Site #5 - 0.94% keyword density (word appears 17 times on page)
Site #6 - 0% keyword density (word does not appear on page)
Site #7 - 0% keyword density (word does not appear on page)
Site #8 - 0% keyword density (word does not appear on page)
Site #9 - 0% keyword density (word does not appear on page)
Site #10 - 2.10% keyword density (word appears 7 times on page)
Site #11 - 0% keyword density (word does not appear on page)

Now, you might say the proper keyword density for this term is ideally between 0%-2.10%...but then again, #11 is another site with 0% keyword density. What makes that site appear on the 2nd page of the SERPS?

There are too many variables to determine a page’s ranking ability for us to say it is best to use a particular percentage for keyword density. It isn’t even safe to say ‘use the same or similar density as your top-ranking competitors’. I wouldn’t even recommend it as a ‘rule of thumb’.

 

Interesting. Maybe google doesn't place much priority on the keyword density.

 

I believe the only way you could attempt to rank with competition, who are out-performing you, based on their keyword density, is if you also followed their lead on all other SEO tactics; on-page and off. This would be a daunting, if not impossible task, in my opinion.

 

Dr. Garcia summed up the whole "debate" in his article, The Keyword Density of Nonsense. It's a great read, even though I don't agree 100% with everything he said (there are a couple points I mildly disagree with).

 

working on keyword density is waste of time

 

Dooh! Didn't read.

 

I think just trying to make the content look natural is the key. Don't keyword stuff and use variations on your main keyword.

 

I agree with Shellerz

Keyword Density has so many other factors too besides just the density of the words on the page. Including exact phrase, and overall density you then add in proximity, bold, italic, alt, comments, h1, etc that pages with the same density are actually parsed differently for example density of 2.0% that comes from title, meta, header, and body text is different then density of 2.0% that comes from title, body, strong

The rule of thumb for me is write natural just make sure it somewhere between 2% and 15% for either exact phrase "Keyword phrase" or overall keyword phrase density. You can double check it by doing search intext:Keyword phrase and checking placement

 

Very sensible comment above. I think the days of really "optimising" for one key phrase on a home page are over.

I think its all about ranking for longtail variations on your chosen phrase beyond justy the single 2 -3 word phrase that is your "dream"

 

i would just add the keyword in all the main places title,neta tag,headings and 1 time in the body text

 

yes i believe 3-5% is optimal