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Any advice/suggestions would be most appreciated!
>maintain a kw density of 3-7% in a site with 200+ words of body text
It's not hard to get up to that, you're right. What's hard is staying down within a limit. It's very easy to get repetitious when doing a page because we're thinking about the word or phrase while we're doing it; it seems natural to keep using it.
Just to go over where we use the keywords: they're used toward the top of the page - in the first paragraph and <H> tags, in link text for clarity in navigation and being important for ranking, and for some, in alt tags for usability, as well as ranking purposes. I like them used toward the bottom of the page also, for continuity in the "message".
Then, they're also used in the title and meta tags. The density can be figured with or without those. There are different settings in the Keyword Density Tool [searchengineworld.com].
It's probably a good idea with new pages to run a check on a test page, which is the way I've done it when I check, which I don't always do. When first doing the text, I use it whenever it comes up. After it's finished, I read it out loud, which is a good way to see if it "sounds" unnatural.
Then I start pruning it down, substituting alternate words that are appropriate and that also may generate new phrases. Sometimes sentences or keyword phrases can be rephrased, too. I also try to sleep on it and give a second run to prune it down. What seems OK can sound very spammy the next day.
For example, since it's almost May, if it's a page for "Mothers Day gifts" possibles are choosing a "gift for mother" (gets the singular in plus another phrase) or "Mothers Day gift ideas" (another searchable phrase altogether). Some people might call it a present, so that can be used - or are looking for a gift for their grandmother - "grandparents gifts" if appropriate to the merchandise, or sexy gifts for women if it's their wife. There's no getting around that often a single word will be over-used above density, but at least we can watch that the two, three and four word phrases stay within a limit.
It helps to have a list of keywords when working up the text, keeping alternate words down so there's as little dilution of the important ones as possible, but using alternates enough to avoid sounding too repetitious. And the others can sometimes generate traffic for unexpected phrases.
Starting with the brainstorming session for a keyword list is the best way to start, and also helps come up with new ideas for keywords, and sometimes additional content pages.
There's an inherent contradiction between natural language and keywords. SE users have been conditioned to use keywords, because it allows them to focus effectively. However, the keywords that people use to search are sometimes completely ungrammatical behemoths.
One word searches are often nouns.
Two word searches are often V + N or A+N
Three word+ searches become a jumbled daisy chain of adjectives, nouns, and verbs.
This means you could find great KEI for A+V+N+A; however, the English language strips gears when you try to use the phrase even once in a sentence.
I suppose this could lead to a variant of Google keyword games. One person chooses a three or four word keyword combination. Contestants then have to use it grammatically and unobtrusively twice in a paragraph.
There's an old Calvin and Hobbes cartoon where Calvin (after playing with lots of words) decides that "Verbing weirds language."
Keywords weird language.
