Keyword Density – When is it Too Much or Not Enough

When it comes to writing great content we can’t emphasize enough that you really need to look well beyond just how unique it is or how viral it might go. Often times site owners are looking for a secret recipe as to how often they should plug in their primary keyword(s) and website owners that are guilty of using the same ones too frequently or not enough will almost certainly hinder their search engine rankings.

What The Right Density For Keywords?

So what is that magic number when it comes to keyword density? Is it 2%, 5%, or maybe 10%? The answer might just surprise when we tell you that there is no such number, and if there were by now most of the SEO experts would have figured it out and we would not be asking this question to ourselves anymore. So if anyone thinks they have solved mystery and assigned a percentage to this puzzle you might want to rethink your answer. Today algorithms are significantly more complex then just assigning a percentage to keyword density.

Think about search engines as examining your content like this. The way modern search engines work is the first time you mention a specific keyword, let’s say for example the word tools, they stop say “hey, this word has some relevance to this page”.

The next time you mention it the search might stop and say “ohh, we’re still talking about this word so I’m beginning to think your topic might be about tools, so let me look at the rest of this content”. Next the search engines will start to examine other words before and after the keywords, they’ll look for synonyms and other important tell all signs to determine how import this specific keyword is to this page and if should be ranked high, low or even considered at all for it.

Dangers of Overdoing The Same Keywords

While Google, Yahoo, and Bing each operate under their own algorithms at some point as you continue writing the same keyword it begins to level out and stops gaining any additional value. Then there is also a point where if you continue to write the same word too often where you are in danger of losing any authority for the keyword.

So while there really is no one size fits all answer when it comes to keyword density there are smart ways to go about it that will generally work just fine for your search engine optimization goals and you’ll never have to pull out the old calculator and do any wasted math.

Begin by making a list of the keywords that you’d like to rank for and then start writing your webpage content and build in each of those words once or twice. If, and only if it makes it more natural to add it in 3, 5 or even 10 more times than do it. You’ll want to make sure you write plenty of content on the page so you can place your key words intelligently, and in a very natural way. Essentially don’t write for search engines, write for people and you’ll be mush better off. A small 200 word page stuffed with the same keyword 10 times is not likely to be natural and it’s highly unlikely that you’ll accomplish any successful ranking if you did try it.

Get a Second Opinion

After you have written your content (say 500 – 1,500 words) read it to someone and ask them if anything sounded weird or out-of-place. If they ask you why you kept saying a certain word then it’s probably not natural and there is very good chance that is what the search engines are going to say too. Likewise, if they say “I don’t get it, what were you talking about” the search engines again will probably be saying the same thing.

In closing, if you want to do the job right, and we’re sure that you do, always write for humans, specifically the ones that will be looking at your websites product or service. Forget the math and the frequency of a word. Natural always beats fake!

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