Webmasters use keyword density to determine the percentage of keywords or keyword phrases that are in their articles so that they can optimize the number of keywords in their content. Keeping track of your keyword density is just one way to optimize your websites or articles for search engines. Though major search engines don’t place a heavy weight on keyword density as they did before, it’s still good to know, since it will help you boost your search engine rankings.
To calculate your keyword density, divide the number of keywords or keyword phrases by the number of total words in your article and multiply this number by 100. For example, if I have 8 keyword phrases in my blogs post and the total word count of my post is 400, my keyword density would be 2% (8 / 400 * 100 = 2%).
A keyword density of 2% is considered very good by many webmasters, and it should help with getting that 1st page position on Google. However, before increasing your keyword density to, say, 6%, know that most search engines will actually penalize you if you have a large keyword density. They do this to prevent keyword stuffing, which is a big no-no.
How do you know if you’ve been penalized? Simple. Your website just won’t show up in search engines at all, no matter how hard you try. Now, if you just made your website and it hasn’t been indexed yet, that’s another story. However, if your website has been around for several months and you’re adding fresh content on a regular basis, chances are you’ve been penalized if your website suddenly disappears from Google.
If you’re a serious writer and value your content, this shouldn’t concern you all too much. Chances are, you also despise keyword stuffing, since this conflicts with your content’s value. If you were ever to keyword stuff, readers would take one look at your website and label it as spam. Unless you want to drive all your customers away, you know that keyword stuffing is best to be avoided at all costs.
To avoid keyword stuffing, try to aim for a keyword density of 1-2%. Anything lower than 1% wouldn’t help you so much in ranking on search engines and anything higher than 3% would be considered keyword stuffing. My best advice is to just write naturally and add keywords as you go. If your content doesn’t look natural, visitors won’t want to read it. If visitors don’t read your content, what’s the point of optimizing for search engines? You won’t get money anyway. Therefore, natural content is the key to success.
Tags: Keyword density, Keyword stuffing, Search engines, SEO
We normally use 4% to 8% keyword density but your according to your recommendation i will adjust around 2%.
Thanks
Thanks for sharing!
The keyword density preference for many people will vary, though most webmasters suggest not going over 4%. In most instances, keyword densities higher than 4% doesn’t sound natural for readers anyway, and that’s the _last_ thing that you want. Your readers should come first and search engine bots should come second. Anything after that should come last.
If you want to work on increasing your search engine traffic without conflicting with the experience of your visitors, consider using backlinking strategies. I plan to discuss this further on a later post.
I’m glad you found this article useful. I plan to write more about keyword density in the near future. Keep us updated on how your transition from a 4-8% keyword density to a 2% keyword density worked out.
Christina