Keyword density desired. When is too much?

What is a good keyword density range?

[silverbytes]

First of all I'd like to say I've performed a search on that topic in this site and there is a lot of postings most of all don't provide an answer to the primary question.

So please if you feel you know about it or have a good source to check out that contains a direct answer to the question please share it!

How much is too much for keyword density?.
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%

I'd say 25% is too much, but I just feel it.
I think a 10-15% is a desirable ratio but please comment about it.

[DaveN]

i think you can go higher than you top estimation.

DaveN

[deejay]

"hey dad, I can run a mile in 7 minutes. Is that fast enough to win the race?"

"Well, son, that pretty much depends on how fast the other runners are."

The reason you won't find a definitive answer on this is that it's all relative. With 100 other factors in the algo affecting your final 'score', and thousands of competitors alongside you who all have varying scores on their 100 factors, there's a lot of room for play here.

I have seen a page with one word on it.. just one word on the whole darn page.. come in No 1 for that word. Of course it had good PR, massive backlinks with that word in the text, etc... but all the same, it had 100% keyword density.. and it still came in No 1.

I do believe there is an ideal density.

I do not believe there is a maximum density. (spam filters notwithstanding).

edit reason: I have a three character memory - I'm a human goldfish.

[onedumbear]

imo it's 13%

[Serio]

IMO its what you can get away with.

The higher the better.

[jordanm]

I'm not sure keyword density is as important as it once was. I've seen pages with none of the keywords I searched for come up number 1. I have seen sites, in major search engine searches, come up number 1 or at least in the top 5 just by the search query being the same as an incoming link, or so it appears. Perhaps that is in another discussion on the boards here somewhere?

It seems to me that content rich pages that have some keyword density to them have an opportunity to fare well in the rankings.

[piskie]

I work to a max 10% of "Text Content" and concentrate on the distribution of that 10% maximising (within quotas) the "Zones" that we all know and love so much.

I feel comfortable with this figure that it is usualy enough providing it is not squandered in a burst or flurry and it gives me a healthy margin should our taskmasters move the goalposts.

[mr_tim]

it depends on the keyword and the competition.

IMO it does seem to be less relevant as this is just one of many factors.

You can have KWD of 0.%, 9%, 5% all within the top 10 in varying positions.

[silverbytes]

Ok, let's put it that way. It must be a limit for SE to consider that keyword spamming, right?

I don't wanna know how much I need to rank first..
I want to know how much is a good keyword density and not spam.

I don't think a 40% keyword density in a page would be acceptable for SE's and someone mentioned 13%...

Where does that come from? I think it would be right but what are the reasons for?

[agerhart]

>>>> It must be a limit for SE to consider that keyword spamming, right?

Nope. Imo, people give the search engines too much credit and assume that their spam filters are better than they really are. Do some searching around and you will some pages ranking well that are use loads of hidden text, keyword repetitions, extremely high keyword density, etc., etc.

Others in this thread are correct though......each situation is different.

[adigaskell]

Whilst its great to get good ranking in the search engines if the traffic doesn't convert then its useless.

A site with 50% density is probably not going to read too well. In my experience a density of around 15% is possible whilst maintaining good, readable sales copy.

[onedumbear]

someone mentioned 13%...
Where does that come from?

My logic tells me that when looking at a web page with at least a paragraph worth of content, anything more than 13% density for a given word does not make for easy, concise, reading and tends to be redundant.

I am also aware that SE developers will always be trying to make an engine produce the most relevant results possible and the developers are well aware that redundancy on a webpage does not mean relevancy and is usually not what the "user" wants.

Finally, what i have seen has led me to believe that on a page with at least a paragraphs worth of content, 13% density (excluding keywords) seems to work best on average.

[agerhart]

You are assuming that the content is paragraphs of copy. What if the content isn't paragraphs? Then a much higher keyword density is perfectly readable and makes sense.

[creative craig]

Take Jobs as an example, Monster come up number two for that search out of 106,000,000 with only mentioning jobs twice on their page in text.

It is all dependant what the other sites in your market area are up to and the other factors of the algo.

[onedumbear]

You are assuming that the content is paragraphs of copy

I am not assuming. I am saying that if there is sufficient quantity of text, "at least a paragraph", few hundred words or more...., that 13% is imo the "optimum".

What if the content isn't paragraphs? Then a much higher keyword density is perfectly readable and makes sense.

I agree and I tried not to contradict that point with my earlier statement

Creativecraig,
There is no doubt that "It is all dependant what the other sites in your market area are up to and the other factors of the algo."
but that was not the posters question.

[creative craig]

silverbytes asked how much is to much, I think the general answer is it depends on what you can get away and what your competition are doing, so there is no perfect amount. So that does answer the question.

[chompy]

I am interested in this question and have a recent experience to draw upon that i am happy to share- sorry for the long post though.

I have had my site stuck at #23 in google.com for 4 months the keyword density for the one word in this case which i was optimising for was 23%.

Precursor: I have been building links slowly with other sites which provide good traffic rather than primarily link vlaue. Still I couldn't move position in the google.com search results (even accounting for links from sites with good PR themselves) In google.co.uk with these same links i am in the top 10 for this keyword. Many of the pages within my site list well or in the top 10 ad bring me good traffic.

Last week I decided to up the keyword density to 29% the recent Google.com update (17-10-03) saw an improvement from #23 to #19 but no change in .co.uk. I have now up'd it to 30.1% and I will see if it will change the postion further. Next week I shall know but as I am away for 2 weeks I wont' be able to post back until then. - of note, the Key word density of some of the sites above mine are either higher(one is 64%) or lower than my keyword density.

Keyword Density: It is possisble to increase keyword density without spamming or reader legibility, it realy depends on the structure of the page. If I am to increase the keyword density further I will need to change the structure more. Incidentally I increased keywrod density primarily in 'alt' tags.

A little off topic but of interest to me is: I currently use Style sheets, use H1 headers thru to H6 headers and in sequence. I have unique copy, on all pages, I do not knowingly spam. My sub pages are targeted at two keywords phrases or more, and I am happy with the listing and the traffic they bring. Yet there are some sites without any real relevance (in my opinion, and from site visitors that have commented)to this single "Keyword" that i am aiming at (-why? because it is the single most entered keyword for this topic according to wordsearch) that list higher than my site. Some of these are professional commercial sites, some have a lower toolbar PR in google than my site, some have less links some have much more links but checking these links often they are unrelated sites linking or link farms or part of a massive site, or these 'vote my site' pages etc.
Whilst at this moment Keyword Density is having an effect for me, what other areas can I look at that can increase my listing. I feel I must be doing something either simple or fundamentally wrong with my page because I have written another site, with less keyword density, less inbound links and it uses frames yet in MSN it ranks above my site primarily directed at this one keyword. Each engine is different obviously in its approach but I would love to hear input on where i could focues more of my effort to improve my listing. I would also like to hear if I am generally on the right track in my approach.

I would like to say that i have followed many of the tennets of searchengine philosophy promoted in webmasterworld and have tried to apply them in my site with diligence. I feel I have reached a mental block on how to go forward and I would appreciate any constructive advice on how to do so.