Internet MarketingThe Importance of Keyword Density
Keyword density refers to the percentage of time a specific keyword or phrase appears on a web page. Search engines measure the density, and determine if the keyword or phrase is relevant to the page. A high keyword density can result in a high search engine ranking. However, since keyword stuffing is easy to accomplish, other factors also figure into search engine rankings. But regardless of abuses, keyword density remains an important part of SEO.
Keyword Density and Page Ranking
Keyword density is used by search engines to measure the relevance of a specific keyword or phrase. If you specialize in selling shoes in Florida, then “Florida shoes” may be one of your keyword phrases. Search engines will measure the amount of times your keyword appears against the total amount of words on the page. If your keyword phrase appears only twice in a sea of two-thousand words, then your keyword density will be low. Low keyword density can prevent you from having a high page ranking. However, high keyword density doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll rank high either. Some search engines don’t bother with measuring keyword density. And even those search engines that do measure keyword density have their own methods for computing the percentages.
Improved Keyword Density
The time to think about keyword density is before you start building your webpage. But if your page is already done, you can go back and optimize for specific keywords and phrases. So how can you use keyword density to improve your page ranking? Follow these steps:
- Collect a list of keywords and phrases people may use when searching on your topic. If your website is about American history, a visitor to your site may search for terms like, “civil war”, “pearl harbor”, or “stock market crash”.
You will also want to include ”American history“ as one of your keyword phrases, but it’s so general until you would probably do better optimizing your pages for specific American history events. - Dedicate different pages on your website to specific keywords and phrases. It’s easier to focus on keyword density when you stick to one subject per page. For example, one page on your American history website can be optimized for “pearl harbor”, another for “civil war”, and so on.
- Avoid keyword stuffing. After you’ve got your list, make an effort to fill your pages with useful content. Don’t place a long list of keywords on your webpage to attract the search engines. Doing so can get your site banned altogether.
- When writing for your site, don’t be shy about repeating keywords and phrases. If you’ve got good writing habits, it may be difficult to repeat a keyword or phrase instead of using the pronoun “it”. For example, for the keyword phrase “pearl harbor”, you may have to write like this “Pearl Harbor took America by surprise. Pearl Harbor will never be forgotten” instead of “Pearl Harbor took America by surprise. It will never be forgotten.”
