Keyword Density

Keyword density is an indicator of the number of times the selected keyword appears in the web page. But mind you, keywords shouldn’t be over used, but should be just sufficient enough to appear at important places.

If you repeat your keywords with every other word on every line, then your site will probably be rejected as an artificial site or spam site.

Keyword density is always expressed as a percentage of the total word content on a given web page.

Suppose you have 100 words on your webpage (not including HMTL code used for writing the web page), and you use a certain keyword for five times in the content. The keyword density on that page is got by simply dividing the total number of keywords, by the total number of words that appear on your web page. So here it is 5 divided by 100 = .05. Because keyword density is a percentage of the total word count on the page, multiply the above by 100, that is 0.05 x 100 = 5%

The accepted standard for a keyword density is between 3% and 5%, to get recognized by the search engines and you should never exceed it.

Remember, that this rule applies to every page on your site. It also applies to not just to one keyword but also a set of keywords that relates to a different product or service. The keyword density should always be between 3% and 5%.

Simple steps to check the density:

• Copy and paste the content from an individual web page into a word-processing software program like Word or Word Perfect.
• Go to the ‘Edit’ menu and click ‘Select All’. Now go to the ‘Tools’ menu and select ‘Word Count’. Write down the total number of words in the page.
• Now select the ‘Find’ function on the ‘Edit’ menu. Go to the ‘Replace’ tab and type in the keyword you want to find. ‘Replace’ that word with the same word, so you don’t change the text.
• When you complete the replace function, the system will provide a count of the words you replaced. That gives the number of times you have used the keyword in that page.
• Using the total word count for the page and the total number of keywords you can now calculate the keyword density.

Keyword density refers to the percentage of times a particular keyword or phrase appears in a piece of content compared to the total number of words in that content. It is often used as a metric in search engine optimization (SEO) to assess the relevance of a webpage or document to a particular search query.

In the past, keyword density was considered a more important factor for search engine rankings. Website owners and content creators would focus on including a specific keyword or phrase multiple times in their content to improve its visibility on search engine results pages. However, search engines have evolved, and their algorithms now consider a more holistic view of content quality and relevance.

Excessive use of keywords, known as keyword stuffing, is now discouraged by search engines as it can lead to a poor user experience and may result in penalties for a website.

It’s important to create content that is natural, valuable, and relevant to the user’s intent rather than solely focusing on achieving a specific keyword density. Modern SEO practices emphasize creating high-quality, informative, and engaging content that genuinely meets the needs of the target audience.

If you are working on SEO, it’s advisable to focus on creating content that is well-structured, easy to read, and provides value to your audience. Use keywords naturally and in context, and avoid overusing them to the detriment of the overall user experience.