Keyword Density on Webpage for Search Engine Optimization

One of the hottest topics in the world of SEO has been keyword density. Does keyword density really exist, and what kind of effect does it have on your rankings? What’s the perfect keyword density to use on your website, and how do you determine what it is? Understanding the ins and outs of this highly debated topic will improve your website’s SEO.

Keyword density is of course the percentage that a keyword or key phrase shows up in the content of your website. If the word “cars” shows up 10 times in a 200 word article, then the density for that word is 5%. Additionally, if the words “red cars” show up 5 times, you still have a 5% density because the phrase still takes up 10 words out of 200 words.

Many people have the belief that a specific keyword density is the solution to success with SEO. However, there is no consistency in what people believe. Some people seem to think that extremely high keyword usage, up to 10% is acceptable and effective. Other people feel that smaller 4% or 5% keyword density is the ideal figure. So what is it really, and how can your website use keyword density to improve on its success?

The truth is that there is no exact percentage that you should be trying to use when it comes to SEO. The search engines do not have a piece of their formula that says 3% density = first page rankings, or anything of the sort. Instead of focusing on exact percentages, you should worry about natural, normal inclusion of your targeted keywords.

This means that as you prepare your content you should keep a focus on including your keyword phrases wherever they make sense to be used. You might have a general guideline for yourself, such as trying to include the phrase every 100 words, or once per paragraph or so, but you should not worry about hitting a targeted percentage.

More important is to ensure that you use the words you are targeting for SEO, and to make sure that you do not overuse them. It’s entirely way too easy to overdo yourself while pursuing a keyword density. If you think you have used a phrase too much, then you probably have. Your visitors will be turned off, and you can even get punished in the rankings of the search engines as a result.

Additionally, don’t forget that besides the actual article content on a webpage, there are other areas where keywords can be included. The best example of this is the anchor text used in your navigation links, however there are other opportunities such as your footer, any sidebars your META tags and more.

Keyword density has proven to be more fiction than fact. Yes, you want to include your keywords and include them often enough so that you get “credit” for them. But there is no such thing as a perfect keyword density for SEO, and you shouldn’t force keywords in to try to meet any precise figure.

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