Onsite Content - Word Count & KW Density
-
Does the word count of a webpage make a difference to search engines? Are longer word counts on pages indexed higher or given higher priority?
For example,say you have 300 words of copy packed with 20 keywords, and say you also have 700 words of copy that have the same 20 keywords worked in, does Google have a preference over which one it ranks higher?
-
I think there are some good points here, but I want to warn that it really depends. There are sites with 250-word pages that do well, if that content is unique and isn't buried in ads, etc. If you have 1,000 words but it's all syndicated from other sites and jammed with ads, you could have Panda breathing down your neck.
I would generally not worry about keyword density. Write natural copy, with solid topic focus, and your keywords will organically end up represented in various forms. Google is a lot more sophisticated than just counting keywords or density these days, and trying to engineer the perfect number is more likely to harm you than help (as others mentioned). Plus, you can drive yourself crazy for something that will ultimately have a very small impact.
What I think is a lot more important is your overall keyword strategy. Instead of worrying about how many times a keyword is on a page, focus on the structure of your site. Which pages target which keywords? Are there important variants that need their own content (and can you create unique content for them)? Are you spread too thin. I see many more problems caused by bad keyword strategy ACROSS sites than within any one page.
-
I would suggest keyword density not to exceed 2 to 3%.
Excessive usage will lead to keyword stuffing penalty.
Less usage may not relay the topic relevancy to search engine.
http://tagcrowd.com is a nice tool to visualize keyword concentration in any page.
-
This is always a discussion I see that really does not matter all that much. Do not write content with keyword density in mind. Write it on topic and for the users and it should com naturally. If you focus too much on pushing your keyword in teh copy then it will look spammy and may be hard for readers.
As for length, I say the more the better. You do not want a page with nothing on it but you also do not want pages and pages of absolute nothing. 500-1000 words i think is a good range
-
Keyword stuffing will also likely lead to the dreaded Google Allinanchor penalty which can cause your rankings to slip dramaticly. Might want to do some research on Allinanchor penalities. Would be worth your while.
-
Two separate issues
a) keyword density. it is now better to not overuse your keyword or keyword phrase in your content, your example is way too high. you only need a few instances in the content - add synonyms and similar industry terms rather than the same keyword over and over again. it reads horrible and Google knows you're keyword stuffing.
b) content on page. yea the word count absolutely matters in a post panda world. flimsy pages with 250 words or so will be considered low quality. pages with 500+ words will have a much better shot at ranking.
-
Personally, I would try and focus on page titles, descriptions and user friendly content. I have found search engines these days seem to frown upon "keyword stuffing". Just my thoughts........ keep it simple, clear and clean, focus based for the viewer. Just my thoughts, hope it helps.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Is there harm in publishing too much content, at once?
We are working on catching up with some competition, who has done a much better job over the last few years with content creation. We normally publish 1 article a day but are looking at scaling that up to 3 to 4 articles a day so we can get our content out there to compete with the other websites, in keyword space we currently aren't in. Is there a negative impact on publishing too much content at once? Is there a negative impact on publishing too much content at once? Besides the probable inability to market all of it, I don't see any issues since we will be getting our articles indexed and out there for Google to start building value on them. However, some team members are apprehensive about doing too much at once. What are your thoughts Moz Community?
Content Development | | GoAbroadKP0 -
Community Discussion - Should low-cost content providers be seen as viable options for content marketers?
Hello there, In the latest YouMoz post, "Case Study: How We Gained More than 100 Links for a Travel Website via Content Marketing," Tom McLoughlin recommends an idea for content creation that is sure to elicit strong opinions from all sides: "Websites like Fiverr and Upwork are fantastic resources for finding freelancers who do great work. It simply takes a bit of initial time to sift through and separate the wheat from the chaff. Once that’s done, give the freelancers a detailed brief and tell them exactly what you want." What's your opinion? Have you had good experiences using these sites? If so, what have you found as the keys to making the working relationship a success.
Content Development | | ronell-smith1 -
Community Discussion - How do you create and distribute content?
Hi there, Moz Community! It's Thanksgiving here in the US, and this year I'm thankful for the release of Moz Content. 🙂 With that in mind, I'd like to revisit Kelsey Libert's November 5 Moz Blog post on creating and distributing content to kick of a community discussion to hold us over during this long weekend. Kelsey said: "Some content is designed to “go viral,” while other times a piece of content intended to stay among friends takes the Internet by storm. But whether planned or unplanned, rapidly-shared content has several commonalities. One of the key factors is that the content creates a strong emotional response in viewers." What do you think? How much effort do you put into getting your content distributed? Do you have particular strategies for creating your content? What are they?
Content Development | | MattRoney5 -
Is there a way to set up a wordpress site so that the content is changed based on a location?
I have a site I am building that has information that shifts based on weather conditions and location. Is there a way to have information sort based on a users geographic location? I am trying to figure out the best way to do this.
Content Development | | Ron_McCabe0 -
Where to add content
Hello, In looking at GA for a client, his top 100 landing pages are all category pages with only a slight amount of articles and product pages. We haven't added content to the product pages, we just rewrote descriptions for unique content. They are about 100-200 words per product. Does that mean we should focus on adding content to category pages first? We're thinking of totaling 500 words or so (though less sometimes) of quality content to category pages. Your recommendations?
Content Development | | BobGW0 -
Keeping web site fresh re content
We currently use a wp blog but we don not host on the web domain. What are the advanatges to moving the blog to the domain The only 1 I can think of is every time we update the blog this should help keep the web site fresh with new content .
Content Development | | NotThatFast0 -
Duplicate content for manually setup blog and wordpress blog
We have a website where the ecommerce will not allow us to host blog. So we created our own manual blog page setup. Will this flag duplicate content on Google? http://www.homesupershops.com/blog and http://www.homesupershops.com/blog-july have same content. How come on a word press the same content on http://www.vizionseo.com/blog/ and http://www.vizionseo.com/blog/2011/05/how-can-your-business-rank-high-on-google-maps/ does not flag duplicate content?
Content Development | | VizionSEO990 -
Dupplicate Page Content
Hey Guys SEOMOZ is showing up Dupplicate Page Content, but this just comes up because we use Tags at all the blog posts. Should we better not use Tags? Thanks in advance...
Content Development | | Rapturecamps0