Keyword density is
the percentage of times a keyword or phrase appears on a web page
compared to the total number of words on the page. In the context of search engine optimization keyword density can be used as a factor in
determining whether a web page is relevant to a
specified keyword or keyword phrase.
For example, if you
have a Web page with exactly 100 words on it including all headlines, captions,
alt text, and advertising, and you have a keyword phrase that is on the page 3
times, your keyword density is 3%:
Keyword
Density = Number of repeats of the keyword / total number of words on the page
* 100
When you're evaluating
keyword density, you need to decide on your keyword phrase and then write your
page. Once you've chosen a keyword phrase for your Web page, you need to start
using it. As you probably already know, you should use your keyword phrase in:
- the meta title
- meta keywords
- meta description
- h1, h2, and h3 headlines (and h4-h6, if you have them)
- the first paragraph of text in the HTML
- in link text
- in alternate text for images
- scattered throughout the rest of the text on the page
But if there isn't a
lot of text on the page, repeating your keyword phrase that many times could
end up with a page that is too keyword heavy. In other words, your keyword
density is too high.
Strive
for a Keyword Density of Around 5% or Less
This means that out of
the entire Web page content, your keyword phrase should be no more than 5% of
the total words. If it is more than that, you risk appearing like a keyword
spammer to search engines or annoying your customers with hard-to-read pages.
Don't let keyword
density rule your Web writing.
I aim for a keyword density of 3-4% for my target phrases. I've found
that this works to get the keyword phrase into the mind of my readers.
