Keyword Density?

[Rlilly]

There is a site in our niche area which launched about 2 years ago. They got some decent directory links and a few others. Very few with any Anchor text. My site and a competitors have been online for 12 years and have a large backlink portfolio.

All this site does is title every link with the keyword, on every page they place one link at the footer for a targeted keyword. Their blog post are only about a keyword targeted. They might now have up to 10 posts tartgeting a keyword i.e. .....com/blue-widget-1, com.blue-widget-2

They use titles tags like this: blue widget | red widget |

This site now has surpassed both my site and a competitors for several major keywords. Can is only be about keyword density?

[freejung]

I wouldn't say it's about keyword density per se, but more about keyword relevance. They have 10 blog posts highly optimized and targeted toward a particular keyword. Presumably the content of those posts is relevant and highly focused on the topic. Do you have a similar amount of content that is similarly tightly focused? It sounds like it's a matter of their singular focus on that one topic and the exclusion of other topics from the section that, all else being equal, is giving them an edge.

[Rlilly]

> Presumably the content of those posts is relevant

that is correct, although the content in all the blog post targeting a keyword are the same, just the text changed around here and there. Their blog has no backlinks, and no readers. It only about "keyword relevance"

> Do you have a similar amount of content that is similarly tightly focused?

My site is focused, my blog is not as focused but got tons of good links

[freejung]

Hmm, I'm surprised that's working for them, especially with the near-duplicate content. Maybe they have backlinks you don't know about?

I wouldn't be surprised if they drop out of the SERPs at some point.

[tedster]

Maybe they have backlinks you don't know about?

Or 301 redirects from a previous powerhouse domain?

[Rlilly]

> Or 301 redirects from a previous powerhouse domain?

How would one find that out?

[tedster]

That is the question indeed. If you can access data about domains that share IP address and compare that with domains that are owned by the same party that gives you a start. Almost no one keeps a redirected domain name on a dedicated IP address.

Also, occasionally you can find 301 redirects listed as backlinks on various tools - but you can't depend on that source for accuracy or thoroughness.

[jakegotmail]

^^ I would love to find something that would allow me to see any and all 301's to a url ... I wouldn't call it priceless, but it would be close

On the topic of keyword density, I am experiencing a similar issue right now. A competitor's page has included a laundry list of FAQ's that is nothing more than keyword stuffing for every conceivable combination of the keyword and related terms.

We have an almost identical keyword density in the body. However ...

They have almost 20X the number of keywords in the body as we do, and nearly as many keywords as we have TOTAL words.

While there may be a few other (and not necessarily less important) factors that are leading them to outrank us at the moment, this has to be a up there towards the top of the list.

[Demaestro]

You may be able to get more info on them by doing a reverse DNS lookup on the IP of the host server.

Sometimes there is no info to gain but sometimes there is a lot. Especially if there is an IP range rather than just 1 IP.

[snickles121]

When does keyword density get to be too high? I have been writing more articles that have links off my main page and the anchor text say blue widgets, red widgets, purple widgets, grey widgets and I keep adding more links to internal pages in this way. Unfortunately doing this has raised my keyword density for my main keyword over 10% because of my anchor text in my site bar.

Does anyone know at what point you get penalized on this for both google and bing or doesnt it matter or count against me because the keywords are in anchor text.