Understanding Keyword Density & How It Affects SEO

By Ali, Having 13 years experience in the IT & Servicing Industry. A.I Lover, Startup Enthusiast, IoT Implementor, and Blockchain Follower.

Posted on: August 16, 2022 3:32 PM

DIGITAL MARKETING > SEO

Before we get started with the keyword density, it’s a good idea to get a little know-how about what keywords are first.

Keywords are words and phrases people type into search engines to search for something online. In other words, keywords act as a channel to connect your website with the intended audience.

For example, if you were looking to buy a new blazer, you might type something like “men’s casual blazers” into Google. Even though that phrase consists of more than one word, it’s still a keyword.

Therefore when you go for an SEO strategy, you’ll get to know that keywords are an essential part of your campaign. Keep an eye on your keyword density as you integrate keywords on your page to avoid overusing your key terms. That could negatively affect your search engine rankings. Keyword density is vital in helping your pages rank properly in the search results.

Table of Contents

What is SEO Keyword Density?

Keyword density usually suggests how a (searched term) focus keyphrase appears in a text concerning the total number of words it contains. For example: if a keyword appears two times in a 100-word text, the keyword density would be 2%. ^[1]

In order to help your page rank properly in the search engine results, keyword density is essential whether you are adding a new page to your site or writing a blog post. To achieve a successful ranking, you should monitor keyword density, also called keyword frequency, to ensure you’re not overusing a keyword.

What is Keyword stuffing SEO?

As we are aware of the fact that keywords act as a building block to your content, going overboard & stuffing keywords without concern is just not a solution to rank higher.

Keyword stuffing is the practice of flooding a page with keywords repeatedly in the website content to improve that page’s ranking on search engines like Google and Bing.

Following is an example of Keyword stuffing,

There Are Two Types Of Keywords Stuffing:

Visible

Unnecessary repeated keywords.

For example, a home appliance e-store is looking to get a web page quickly ranked high for the search term ‘best vacuum cleaner’.

Use words or phrases that are not relevant to the topic, product, or service.
Inserting blocks of the same keywords.

Concealed

Trying to hide text by using the same colored font on the same background, while users may not see this but crawlers on search engines will.
Covering up repeated use of words in the code of your webpage.
Stuffing keywords or phrases in your meta tags, alt attributes & comment tags.

How to Calculate Keyword Density?

It’s not that much rocket science that you might be wondering. You’ll calculate the ratio percentage of the keyword to your overall word count. All you have to do to calculate keyword density is, follow this formula:

You can determine keyword density by dividing the total number of words on your page by the number of times your keyword appears on the page. You can turn this ratio into a percentage (%) by multiplying (×) your result by 100.

What is the ideal keyword density?

When it comes to calculating keyword density, you want to know its good ratio for the page. There are no precise rules for keyword density. Many SEOs recommend using approximately 1-2 keywords for every 100 words of copy. Optimal keyword density differs from page to page, phrase to phrase. Experts have mixed opinions, some say 0.5% & 0.8%. But it is suggested by most that you stay below 3%. ^[2]

The best advice on this topic can be considered as follows,

Write naturally and include the keyword phrase once or twice on a page.
Avoid demotion in Google by avoiding repeating keyword phrases in text content.
Focus on creating high-quality, engaging content instead.

Handling your Google Keyword Density

Following are some methods you can follow to improve your Google keyword density,

Most companies fall short when creating content. You may ask why? When creating content, the company focuses on writing for search engines rather than the audience. So to successfully find the ideal keyword density, start by writing for your audience first.
To ensure your page ranks in the search results, you must place your keyword in certain areas. For example, placing your keyword just into the body text won’t help your page reach its full ranking potential.
Use variations of your keywords.
Lastly, test the current performance of a page. See if your current keyword density affects your metrics & ranking.

Best SEO Tools to Check Keyword Density

Following are some tools that you can use to measure your keyword density,

SEO Content Score Checker 2.2
YouTube Keyword Tool
eBay Keyword Tool
Transactional keyword list generator
Featured Snippets Tool
Free Keyword Search Volume Checker
Bulk Web page Word Count checker
Bulk Title Tag checker

FAQs

Is high keyword density bad?

The higher the keyword density, the more likely the whole page is about that topic. Therefore, paying attention to keyword density is still vital for SEO. The key is not to use the term as often as possible but to consider the context of the copy.

How many keywords are 1000 words?

It is generally recommended to include your primary keyword every 100-150 words. So if you’re writing a 1000-word article, inserting the primary keyword around 7-10 times would be appropriate.

How many times should you repeat a keyword?

It’s been observed that most SEO professionals agree that a keyword should not appear more than once per 200 words of copy. Therefore, a given keyword should not appear more than once for every 200 words of copy on a webpage.

Conclusion

Up till now, you have been well aware of keyword density, which plays a vital role in SEO. So if you want to rank in the search results, you must balance the integration of your keywords to ensure you’re using them frequently. Optimizing your keyword density will help your pages rank higher and drive more valuable traffic to your site.

Also Read:

References:

[1] Keyword Density – searchmetrics

[2] What is the ideal keyword density? – WebFX