What are your thoughts on keyword density?
-
Useless metric?
Good as an indicator, but not of any real value?
Best way to judge how well content is optimised?
I've heard all kinds of opinions, what's yours?
Thanks!
-
All absolutely valid responses - we currently just write copy for our users and optimise HTML for the search engines, seems to be working well thus far
Thanks guys!
-
In my opinion, as long as the page title, headings and some of the content have your kw in it, you should be fine. The content should be natural, but because it focuses on a specific good/service those terms will naturally flow out a bit more.
Google understands "natural" much more than people think. If something is "unnatural" it might consider it giving the person who queried that keyword a bad user experience and that is what Google doesn't want to do. If the searcher always has a good user experience, they will come back (and that is one of the objectives of Google Algorithm).
-
I never even think about KW density. I just write in natural language. Sometimes that produces a lot of keyword instances in my writing, sometimes it doesn't.
I think that it is hard enough to write great content without having the additional burden of stuffing or subtracting some special words into the content. What a PITA.
Google doesn't want people doing that. Save yourself some time and just write like a human. That's what I do and my stuff ranks fine.
-
Keyword density can help Google identify what your page is about.
There is not a certain % of keyword density that will give you good or bad results - the thing to keep in mind while you are writing is your visitors. You want to mention your keyword where applicable in your content; however, you do not want it to seem forced.
Best way to judge how well content is optimized? - I like using SEOmoz On-Page Optimization tool.
David Naylor has a pretty cool keyword density tool which returns some good info.
Hope this helps.
Mike
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
My target keyword is "moringa powder" but my product title is "moringa ultimate original powder". Is this a problem?
The focus keyword is "moringa powder". The product title and default H1 tag is "moringa ultimate original powder". The url also has "moringa ultimate original powder". Yoast is saying the keyword does not appear in the url or any subheadings. So should I change the product title and url to Original Ultimate moringa powder or is having them separated ok? https://greenvirginproducts.com/product/moringa/150-gram-moringa-ultimate-original-powder/ Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | Jeremy-Marion0 -
Best practice for URL structure - short and sweet, or double keyword?
We are just about to re-jig our main category pages and have found that different leading sites have taking different views on short and sweet url structure vs. repeated keywords1. For our website we have two options. We have two options: mywebsite.com/browse/birmingham/restaurants-in-birmingham or mywebsite.com/browse/birmingham/restaurants Someone like opentable have gone for short and sweet (opentable.co.uk/birmingham-restaurants) whereas people like Time Out have gone longer with multiple matches in the url (timeout.com/london/food-drink/londons-top-50-restaurants). Is there a consensus on which is better?
On-Page Optimization | | HireSpace0 -
Exact keyword vs connecting words.
Hi guys, I'm wondering if there's a huge difference between exact keywords vs connecting words. i.e. "limo service chicago" vs " limo service in chicago" or something similar. It's tough to have 4+ keywords on a page sound great without using some form of connecting word. Will google still rank the page as high if I use connection words in a few instances of the keyword? Or should I just leave the exact keyword fir all instances. Thanks in advance. Aron
On-Page Optimization | | aronwp0 -
Changing Location & Losing Location Based Keywords
We're a web agency, and we've just moved from Bromley to Sevenoaks. Our website ranks really well for all Bromley led keywords and regularly brings enquiries, but we're no longer based in Bromley. We don't want to lose our rankings, but clearly we can't claim to be based in Bromley when we are now in Sevenoaks. Obviously, we also need to start using Sevenoaks to build up traction for searches in our new area. So the question is - should we create a Bromley or Sevenoaks focused landing page (or both)? Should we change all references of Bromley to Sevenoaks across the site in one go or gradually? Would it be terrible to leave Bromley onsite? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | Ecce0 -
How important is it to include the target keyword phrase in the page URL?
If I want to target a keyword phrase to a particular phrase, but do not want to change the URL of that page, will that negatively impact my rankings? I am also wondering if I can get around it by creating a new, short URL that 301 redirects to the original URL. Would that be as effective as including the keyword in the original URL?
On-Page Optimization | | susannajbost0 -
If i only want to rank for one specific keyword and use it in all my page titles, will it negatively affect my rankings?
If i want to rank highest for one specific keyword (virtualization management, for example) and use that keyword in all the titles on my website, will that negatively affect my search rankings? SEOmoz is telling me that i should use unique titles for my different pages to ensure that they describe each page uniquely and don't compete with each other for keyword relevance.
On-Page Optimization | | foonista0 -
Keywords with accents
Hi, We are running a website in Spain to teach touch typing to children (www.mecanografia.com). Our main keyword is mecanografia (touch typing in Spanish) which is official written with an accent on the i. Our SEOMOZ on page optimization report was initially an F because we set the keyword mecanografia without an accent and on the page we use the grammatically correct version with an accent on the i. Once we added the keyword with accent to SEOMOZ our rapport was upgraded to an A. Our question is: how does Google treat accents. Is it necessary to optimize for words with and without accent or does one version suffice. Users search about 50% of the time without using the accent. Any advice is greatly appreciated!
On-Page Optimization | | Mecanografia0 -
Ranking on page 5 for a 1% difficulty keyword
Hello mozers, I am going crazy over this. I have designed a new site www.smh.cz. The company name / kw is unique (Smolikova Mikulas Hendrich), but it appears on page 5 on Google.
On-Page Optimization | | ilincev
Yahoo and Bing is fine (in top 3 positions). All the on-page factors are ok too.
All the smh.cz pages are indexed on Google. We have done a 301 redirect of two other domains (sm-legal.cz and smm-partners.cz) which were websites for the firms prior to forming a new one. I am scratching my head over what does Google dislike so much. Any thoughts? Can the smh.cz domain - which previously had some dodgy insurance content - be the reason? Your help is much appreciated. Ondrej0