Non-keyword density - can it hurt?

[tedster]

I've been struggling with a couple pages that seem like they should rank better than they do on the keywords I've been targetting.

On looking closely at these pages, I notice that each one contains another word or phrase that is, inadvertantly, sky-high in density.

So here's my question: if my targetted keyword is lower in density than some other word on the page, can that other word deflate the page's position in the SERPs for the word I am targetting?

[troels nybo nielsen]

Interesting problem. Some SEOs claim that each page really should be optimised for one single keyword. If they are right then you have been inadvertantly optimising those pages for the wrong keywords.

In your situation I think that I would edit those texts and diminish the density of those unwanted non-keywords. Perhaps out of stylistic reasons too?

And I would take a look at other pages on those websites. Perhaps you inadvertantly themed your websites for the wrong keywords?

[vitaplease]

Interesting question.

If its a frequently fresh page maybe you could fool around with density adjustments.

I've seen pages with the keyphrase only in the alttag doing very well, all due to external inbound anchortexts.

[tedster]

In these cases, I need those particular words. For example, one page sells a group of software items. Each item has a Buy Button "for Macintosh" and "for PC", with those phrases in text.

I'm going to turn those often-repeated words into graphic images and see if that helps the page on the searches I intended to optimize for.

I have no way to know exactly how an algo filters for "too high" a density. I'm thinking that ANY non-stop word with too high a density could get a global penalty applied to the page that would affect ranking, even for searches on other words. It's pure conjecture at this point, of course, but a test will tell.

[HitProf]

tedster, are these high density words common words? Do you rank
very well on them, or are they just too common to verify?

[tedster]

Words like "Macintosh" "software" "download" -- not easily checked for my page's rank.

[Marcia]

It's not at all a penalty, but I've seen pages rank for the wrong keyword phrases (aka - non-money words) by having the predominance of density. Having the phrase as the domain name and inbound link text didn't help either, as well as the original placement in the code in one case.

It was overcome right off by decreasing the density of that phrase and controlling where it appeared, using the right phrases (aka money words) in the right places and adjusting the internal navigation. Minor tweaks were made after, gradually, and while it still ranks for the phrase that's the domain name it's now placed prominently for the targeted phrases.

It was onsite optimization, making adjustments in density and alterations to increase site theming that did it. Not one change was ever made to keywords used in inbound link text, which still all have the non-money original phrase - even more of them than originally.

There's another one now with the same problem, a new site that's ranking for the phrase that's the domain name - about 125 Overture searches showing rather than several thousand for the main phrase the site should be optimized for. We'll do density adjustments, add pages to the site, and since it's just starting out, do a little work with inbound links also, but there's a limit to how much that can be controlled. Index page density and on-page location will be the first step.