Max/Min Keyword Density % - is it important for SEO

[LianneF]

Hi
Just wondering what people think about keyword density and if its important for seo, is there a min and maximum %. I've been using the keyword density tool on firefox see results below

Title: 1: 8: 12.5%
Body: 9: 1938: 0.5%
H1/H2/H3: 0: 0: 0%
Links: 6: 744: 0.8%
Bold: 0: 35: 0%
Meta description: 5: 50: 10%
Meta keywords: 4: 16: 25%

I don't have any % in the H1/H2/H3 and bold lines for any keywords that i've tested does that matter?

If a % was say over 30% would google think I was spamming and not rank the word as highly?

Just thought I would look into the content of the site a bit more as a lot of people keep saying content is king, and surely that's easier than trying to get good quality one way links.

Regards
Lianne

 

[pws1970]

Hi Lianne,

Sure, content is king but it is getting that content noticed (making it visible) that is important.

Do yourself a favour and forget about keyword density, seriously. Just write natural and place your keywords within your content where you would feel they belong.

Don't spam words over and over and don't rely on magical %'s to help promote your site.

Keyword density is a myth that has been busted so many times over.

 

Hi Lianne,

Sure, content is king but it is getting that content noticed (making it visible) that is important.

Do yourself a favour and forget about keyword density, seriously. Just write natural and place your keywords within your content where you would feel they belong.

Don't spam words over and over and don't rely on magical %'s to help promote your site.

Keyword density is a myth that has been busted so many times over.

If your refering to Shaun's site .all those children should be in school.

Earl

 

[pws1970]

Haha, so im a child myself then Earl as I was a contributor to that thread.

Listen you work with your magic % numbers while I write great content and promote it to the hilt.

 

[PrettyPaws]

Hi Lianne,

Sure, content is king but it is getting that content noticed (making it visible) that is important.

Do yourself a favour and forget about keyword density, seriously. Just write natural and place your keywords within your content where you would feel they belong.

Don't spam words over and over and don't rely on magical %'s to help promote your site.

Keyword density is a myth that has been busted so many times over.

I agree, obviously you need to have the keywords on the page so density of 0% is no good but don't obsess over the numbers. If you think you are spamming then you probably are on the otherhand if your content reads well for a human visitor then it'll read well for Google.

 

[pws1970]

PrettyPaws I agree, but listen I'm not getting into this again - if others feel the need then so be it.

Some, in fact many, believe in Keyword Density, while others like myself take a different route, each to their own.

 

[PrettyPaws]

PrettyPaws I agree, but listen I'm not getting into this again - if others feel the need then so be it.

Some, in fact many, believe in Keyword Density, while others like myself take a different route, each to their own.

I'm glad you agree with my agreement

I do believe in it as it clearly exists, what I believe about it is another matter

 

[mikekingpin]

Hi Lianne,

Sure, content is king but it is getting that content noticed (making it visible) that is important.

Do yourself a favour and forget about keyword density, seriously. Just write natural and place your keywords within your content where you would feel they belong.

Don't spam words over and over and don't rely on magical %'s to help promote your site.

Keyword density is a myth that has been busted so many times over.

I agree with this. Make sure you have your keywords somewhere, pref. in heading tags if it look okay to read like this...

Make your site RELEVANT and interesting, update with new content when you can.

If you struggle to think of new content, search the news online for related news, and start a news section to your site. Don't copy/paste from the news sites! - rather, read the stories, and write a news piece yourself, giving it your personal touch, with your thoughts in there also perhaps.

Adding even 1 page per week like this will help you!

 

[Birmingham]

ideal density is that of natural language in useful context. this means, if you're talking about something which you specialise in you're going to use all the right keywords to ideal density. too dense and you'll be penalised for keyword stuffing. not dense enough and you'll be rather uncompetitive. notice how densely i've already used the words "dense" and "density" in this paragraph.

only density issue to pay special attention to is titles and headings which should be more dense than main content but not so dense as to resemble conjunctionless lists

 

[OldWelshGuy]

People are constantly getting hung up on SEO elements that stopped carrying any large amount of weight years ago, (maybe because most of the 'RANK #1 ON GOOGLE IN A WEEK' e-books are promoting this).

Search engines analyse content of pages, Google is using Semantics far more now, as they want to ensure relevance. As people have already said, write naturally and your density will be fine.

E.G. Say I am talking about rugby coaching for example. I might write:~

Becoming a rugby coach can be a very enjoyable experience, but it is something that should not be entered into lightly. Coaching a team, especially mini and junior rugby teams is a very demanding pass-time that carries some heavy responsibilities.

However, if you decide you would like to take the plunge and get into coaching, then there is a great coaching section that includes a pathway set out under the IRB (International Rugby Board) that will ensure you not only become a coach, but that you get all the training and assistance possible to allow you to become a GOOD one.

Now the article would be about 'becoming a rugby coach' . OK it starts with that very phrase, BUT If I was targeting that phrase in the title I wouldn't start the article with it. I would have :~
Becoming a rugby coach.
Coaching rugby can be a....

But take a look at that natural use of words.
becoming words include 'training, assistance, become, pathway
Rugby words include team, coach, coaching, training, rugby, IRB
Coach words include 'coaching, training, pathway, coaching, team, teams, mini & junior

Now while you might think that mini & junior have little to do with Rugby specifically, this is where the cleverness of the algorithm comes in as it understands Polysemy, and will associate mini & junior with 'rugby' because of the latent semantic Analysis it is running. All long words (sorry), and I have deliberately used them so that anyone reading this can research them and get a better understanding. here is a little game I run to explain to people how it works. Read one word at a time and think of something.

Tiger

Grass

Club

Bunker

Tee

Golf


Almost everyone who reads the first word thinks of a stripey big cat. But, as the words are read, it becomes obvious that 'Tiger' is Tiger Woods, not a large cat who plays golf That is natural language processing in its simplest form.

Also, in the little sample article above, I linked to the coaching page of the IRB website. This outbound on topic link will help theme the page, and re-enforce it as a possible good resource.

 

Haha, so im a child myself then Earl as I was a contributor to that thread.

Listen you work with your magic % numbers while I write great content and promote it to the hilt.

Only interested in one magic number and thats Number 1.:|

"The results justify the means" ( EAL 1939 ).

Earl

 

[pws1970]

Only interested in one magic number and thats Number 1.:|

"The results justify the means" ( EAL 1939 ).

Earl

Like I said Earl, I aint getting involved in this again!

Yep, I like the sound of #1 as well.

 

[mikekingpin]

Thanked you for this, as you worded it much better than I did!

You went into detail explaining things, and did not assume prior knowledge that the reader may have... nice work ;-)

People are constantly getting hung up on SEO elements that stopped carrying any large amount of weight years ago, (maybe because most of the 'RANK #1 ON GOOGLE IN A WEEK' e-books are promoting this)....... Rest of quote edited to reduce [FONT=arial,sans-serif]Birmingham[/FONT]'s stress levels!!!

 

[Birmingham]

speaking of onpage wording, it's important not to repeat large quantities of content. indeed large quotations, like that above, will do no favours for the seo of this thread

 

[OldWelshGuy]

So lets ban the quotation feature then? This nit picking point scoring is getting out of hand now.

 

[mikekingpin]

speaking of onpage wording, it's important not to repeat large quantities of content. indeed large quotations, like that above, will do no favours for the seo of this thread

That better???

 

[Birmingham]

debatably

 

[infiniteseo]

Hi Lianne,

Sure, content is king but it is getting that content noticed (making it visible) that is important.

Do yourself a favour and forget about keyword density, seriously. Just write natural and place your keywords within your content where you would feel they belong.

Don't spam words over and over and don't rely on magical %'s to help promote your site.

Keyword density is a myth that has been busted so many times over.

Agreed on this. As the industry grows, relevancy of content is what's truly the king. Create content for readability, and for real readers and not just the SE's. I guess if that's the idea in mind in developing your content, you will never miss your target.

2c.