Importance of Keyword density?
-
Short, Sweet and easy for you guys!!
How important is keyword density???
Cheers
-
Also see Rand's recent update to the search engine ranking factors. Keyword usage in <title>, <h1> and on-page content are all mentioned and measured.</p></title>
-
Well, Google is obsessed with returning the best 'relevant' results they can. That's what makes people want to use their engine, is the quality of the results. I can't point to an article where they say "we're using LSI" but I guarantee you that a building full of PhDs at Google is doing everything they can to increase the quality of the results they return. LSI (or something like it) has to be a component (if not the major driving force).
-
@Mike Scanlin
Are search engines like Google currently using LSI? I tried doing some research on the topic but had trouble finding anything actually published by Google (except in their patent section). Either way, very interesting topic!
-
Hey, the pro term target tool will give you a page grade for a keyword and is a good way to learn about optimising a page for a given term. It's not a perfect science, but it will point you in the right direction.
-
Thank you this is very helpful,
So Keyword density is a myth then?
-
Keyword usage, as EliasAQ describes, is a best practice. However focusing on keyword density (the idea that a keyword ideally must comprise x percentage of the page text) is essentially a myth. This document explains this in more detail: http://guides.seomoz.org/chapter-4-basics-of-search-engine-friendly-design-and-development.
I use keywords in strategic parts of my page but aside from that I just try to write naturally and for the target audience.
Keyword density is important in the sense of never "overdoing" it. Hammering on a keyword over and over is likely to get your page flagged as spam (and scare off your visitors.)
-
HI Wazza1985,
In my experience keyword density is a very important factor. However, it's more important to ensure that your target keywords appear in key places, such as:
- Page title
- H1
- H2
- H3
- Main body text
- Internal and external pointing to your page
- Image alt tags
- etc
Also don't forget that content is for users as well as search engines so forcing keywords into the content to increase density could devalue it.
I hope this answers your question.
-
Thanks Mike very interesting point
-
While it used to be possible to keyword stuff content to game the search engines, that is less true today. I'm a believer in LSI (latent semantic indexing) whereby the SEs understand the meaning of a page even if they keyword isn't exactly present. SEs today know about synonyms and can extract meaning from text, allowing for creative and interesting use of language. Without tedious keyword repetition the content you create will be of more interest and read better to a search user –increasing the user experience.
I take the viewpoint that you should write for humans first, and then review the content to make sure the keyword is present at least a little bit. I would not go so far as to say you should have 1 occurrence of the keyword per 150 words, or any other hard and fast density metric. But that's just me.
Also, I think the external factors (links with appropriate anchor text, and variations of that anchor text) are more important than on-page factors like keyword density. Just my opinion, although I do rank well for many phrases and I ignore keyword density (other than making sure the keyword is present in some minimal fashion on the page that is optimized for it).
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
-
Keyword Cannibalization vs. Optimizing Site
I am in the process of optimizing our website and I am having a hard time reconciling two best practices I have found on Moz. 1. You should avoid having multiple pages focus on the same keyword because you will lose some control of which result will show. 2. You should identify your core keywords and weave these keywords multiple times (naturally) throughout your site. I have spent months identifying our top 7 keywords and am working through the site now. The first piece of advice keeps giving me pause. Can anyone weigh in with other considerations or advice on how I can reconcile these two strategies. Thank you
On-Page Optimization | | NikCall2 -
Am I spamming my Keyword?
Hi All I am trying to rank my site for many key phrases but the pretty much always contain the word "Sussex" The biggy with a lot of competition is "Caterers Sussex" and similar variations when I view source on their page I find that Gastro catering's code uses "sussex" 92 times in it code. My site www.SussexChef.com uses the word "Sussex" 590 times, the competitors site mentions the word less in its code and is dominant for all my desirable key words. Am I spamming my keyword by using Sussex too often when naming my image file? Is there anything in this or am I barking up the wrong tree? Thanks for your help Ben
On-Page Optimization | | SussexChef830 -
What is the best way to change keywords?
I have a client who is moving and I'll need to redirect their site to a new city. Taking local out of the picture, what is the best way to convert the site? Here are somethings I've already done. Changed the title keywords Ensured the page grade is an A for the new keywords. Changed the alt tags on images on the front page. Since I made these changes, the website has actually fallen in ranks from what it was initially ranking for the new city (the website was already ranking organically on page 2 and has dropped to mid page 3.) Thanks in advance
On-Page Optimization | | jonnyholt0 -
Does Google give weight or importance to scholarly articles such as those found in pubmed?
Does Google give weight or importance to scholarly articles such as those found in pubmed? www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed Do you think it matters to Google if you format and word your contents so that they look like research articles?
On-Page Optimization | | monchconch0 -
Number of occurances of a keyword
At the moment my site is down due to issue at the datat centre so please don't ask for teh url as it will be some time before it is back up and running. On one of my pages I am targeting two related keyword phrases e.g. "How to use Widgets" and "Using Widgets" Each of these phrases appears once each in the Tile tag, H1 tag and meta description and two or three times in the body text. Which I beileve is current best practice. However the word Widgets appears more 60 times in total could this be hurting the rankings of the other two phrases? Many Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | spes1230 -
Avoid Keyword Self-Cannibalization
Okay so if my website has the keyword 'dog training'. My main page shows one of my posts in which the title is 'dog training'. I cannot change it because the SEOMOZ on page tool tells me to keep the keyword at the front of the title for SEO increase I don't understand... <dl> <dd>Although employing targeted keywords in the H1 tag does not correlate well to high rankings, it does appear to provide some slight value. It's also considered a best practice for accessibility and to describe a page's content, hence our recommendation.
On-Page Optimization | | 678648631264
However, keyword stuffing may be perceived negatively by the search engines and can impact rankings. Thus, we suggest keeping keyword usage in the H1 to 2 or fewer uses.</dd> <dd>If I remove it then this shows up or change the anchor text. It pisses me the hell off because this damn tool doesn't even say how to fix the problem. If I go into one of my posts, the main title of my blog shows up in the top right corner which happens to be my keyword (I cannot change it) so what the f' do I do?????</dd> <dd>If someone could just take a look at my blog and tell me all the wrongs about it and how to fix everything, that would be amazing.
</dd> </dl>0 -
Why is on-page optimisation not showing all my keywords
Why is on-page optimisation not showing all my keywords, it is reporting on only about 10 of the 40
On-Page Optimization | | yours2share0 -
Apostrophes in keywords
It appears that SEOmoz tools like the On-Page Report Card treat keywords differently if they have apostrophes in. So for example childrens and children's are treated as different keywords. Is this a quirk of the On-Page Report Card or does Google treat them as separate keywords?
On-Page Optimization | | MulberrySqCraig0