Is Keyword Density still important in SEO?
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Is keyword density still valid and does it still affect site rankings ?
I have to say No. Not to the extent that it is completely ignored but the 6% keyword density formula, surely is not working.
Again there are exceptions. I’ve seen that for sites with very less competition and are in the luxury of a new niche, has an edge with keyword densities and even domain keyword matches for that matter. But for competing websites, I have to go with a “No”.
Let me also add that – Keyword density is only a “supporting factor”. Ex:- If you have a new website, which you are filling with fresh content, then it’s good to follow a pattern where all the new topics you write revolve around a particular topic.
Ex:- The new website is on “Dog food”, then you might want to write “Best dog foods for Poodles”, “How to feed Dog food?” “The best Dog foods in the market” and the like. The idea is to let know the search engines what our primary keyword/domain is.
At this phase, I think a little bit of keyword density is okay, I don’t want to stick to a pattern though with a 5% or 7% density. It should rather be natural, not machine like.
Coming back to extremely competitive webpages/sites, I think Keyword density is not a visible factor as others.
The reason is that, when the competition is high, a lot more authority factors come into play like backlinks and references, where Keyword Density or any such onsite optimization factor does not stand a chance.
So essentially, Keyword Density can be considered as a “Supporting Factor” and not an “Authority Factor”, such that if you follow a particular percentage of keyword density in your page, the term gets highlighted. It might work with new websites and fresh niches, combined with other SEO metrics. But when it comes to cut throat competition, it’s just another one factor among 10,000 factors.
Hi Mani,
totaly agree. I like seo consultant never said cleint to to take up density on some % border. Sure, on site have to be content related to title and keyword on wich he want be in top, but density… It smell like spam.
I do not think it has much value in SEO since link anchor text and site relevance seems to be king at the moment. Keywords that other sites use to describe their site, then link to your site is very powerful as well.
I agree my web sukrascatering.com has enough density, for the keyword catering services chennai. But it is not in top ten. And my competitors have very less backlink and keyword density compare to mine can you please tell me why my site isnt listed in top ten.
I’ve really noticed this happening. We operate in a competitive market and optimise our keywords regularly – it’s been other factors like improving content that have really helped out!
Repetition of keywords more than thrice may be stamped as keyword stuffing or spam. It’s the number of the links with the keyword in it really counts.
Many bloggers link your articles with your titles as keywords, hence write killer titles with your keword in it, and that will do better than keyword stuffing.
Hiya Mani!
Your keywords / phrases must be there, otherwise the search engines won’t identify your content as being relevant to what people are searching for.
As long as they are prominent in the first 100 words of content especially, you’ll be good to go.
hi mani
i totally agree with you keyword density is important for SEO. This is how we tell search engine what is our primary keyword but one thing should be kept in mind that you should not force keywords into the page and overload it with keyword that google will think it as spamy if you can put keyword in natural flow of page that is best.
I knew it was coming to this. Its all about back links nowadays.
P.S. I am looking for link partners. If anybody is interested, this is my site.
Where do you people come up with some of this stuff?
Only use keywords “thrice”, otherwise it will be considered spam? Surely you are not suggesting a page with 1200 words need only have 2 instances of the subject of the page?
Having no main keyword on a page is like writing a thesis without a subject. You need your page title, url, metadata, incoming links all to match the subject of the page…and what is that subject called, A KEYWORD. So of course keywords matter.
As for density, if you wrote an article about the New York Yankees – you would naturally use the term New York Yankees 2, 3, 5% of the time…this is without even thinking about it. If you are writing well conceived pages, with good subjects and interesting topics…your keyword density is going to build itself. But to suggest that it is bad to have 3% density is simply wrong….that is just common sense and good writing, and the SEO benefit is simply an add on.
I agree that it is silly to go back and stuff well performing pages keywords, expecting some big increase in rankings. But since using the right keywords is part of normal, everyday business writing – trying to claim density is unimportant makes no sense.
Keyword density is an important thing to consider. Although back links appear to the big factor now.
I agree with Groove Factory PR.
You have to have enough of an occurance of keywords for the search engines to be able to catagorize what your page is about.
I also agree that the search engines don’t put a great deal of weight on keywords in the serp’s, it does seem to be all back link oriented these days.
But, the search engine still needs to know what your page is about.
For a page to be considered relevant to a specific keyword, it should have 300+ words of well-written text with a keyword density of 1-3%. If you don’t have a keyword density that is close to this range, search engines probably won’t realize that this page is relevant to your keyword (and it won’t show up in the SERPs.
If you’re looking for a good introduction to SEO guideline that an economical SEO firm can follow, check this one out. http://www.bergstrom-seo.com/resources/google-search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf. It was written by google, and it’s really good.
I agree with this article……but keyword density is also important for an SEO…..because how we tell search engines which are our primary keywords….but these days anchor text and the relevancy of website are the king of website ranking..!
Hi Mani. Interesting article. Like everything to do with technology and the internet, everything changes. Often more quickly than we can keep up with. I would agree it is a combination and keywords still have their place. However, I develop quality backlinks and quality content more than ever.
I agree my web marriagescatering.com has enough density, for the keyword catering services chennai. But it is not in top ten. And my competitors have very less backlink and keyword density compare to mine can you please tell me why my site is not listed in top ten