deejay - 11:34 am on Apr 16, 2003 (gmt 0)

Hi MattJ

I'm about five minutes away from unconscious, so I'll try and make this quick:

Do I believe there is an ideal keyword density? Yes.
How much is it? Haven't researched it closely for a few months.. 8-14% would be ballpark.
Effect? say the ideal is 10%... I believe a page at 9% will fare better than a page at 15% for that factor
At 35% should I worry? Nope. It's all relative to the sites around you... and it is only one factor in the algo.

say for example the ideal is 10%, in the current index keyword density is weighted as 5% of total page score. Page 1 has a density of 15% and scores perhaps 4.3/5% for keyword density... Page 2 has 30% density and scores 3.9/5% for keyword density. Although the densities are quite different, the overall effect at .4% difference between the pages isn't too huge, and might be quite easily overcome by any of the other 98 factors in the algo.

I'm not saying it is unimportant. I am saying it is a factor that is within your control, is relatively easy to control, and without too much effort you can maximise the points available to you for this factor. BUT, like the often over-emphasised Page Rank factor, it is just one factor of around 100.