On-Page Keyword Optimization When Page Ranks Well?

[Pjman]

I have a site I neglected for about two years after I launched. It is a popular site in the niche. I'm going back over the pages to see if I Keyword stuffed at all. In 70% of the cases if I find that I stuffed the word in there too many times (Density 8-11%), the page doesn't rank well at all. To be expected. But in 30% of the case, they are totally stuffed (KD as high as 19%) and it is ranking top 3.

I'm in for the long play here.

Should I go back and optimize those pages that are ranking well, but are totally bloated with keyword?

Any ideas are appreciated.

[RedBar]

All I can say is that contrary to so-called Google guidelines that in my widget sector I see a lot of keyword stuffed product pages ranking well and usually with a higher density than you quote.

I would say that 90+% of them are Indian, understandably since it is for Indian widgets, but also that none of them are new sites, all a minimum 7-10 years old, none of them responsive, all very poor English grammar but yet stuffed full and ranking highly.

No Google, they're not a figment of my imagination, I'm fed-up of telling you about these sites that you claim should not rank since there is 0% EAT about any of them!

[aristotle]

From what I've seen, keyword density doesn't matter much to google's algorithm. I vaguely remember Matt Cutts or some other google spokesperson saying this as well.

A good writer will use keywords (and all words) naturally. Worrying about keywrod density can produce text that is contrived and distracting.

[Pjman]

@ RedBar loving the notion. Yes, G gets it wrong, I'm well aware and have felt more than G knows.


@ aristotle I get it, you're mostly in e-comm. I have more than 20K sites. All my ecomm sites, KWD = zilch. On lead to buy sites KWD does help. On KWD to eyeballs sites, KWD is King. If I'm wrong, please spank me.

[tangor]

For things that are working, best advice is don't break it by fixing it.

Older sites probably have a nod and wink ... new sites (or NEW CHANGES) might not fare so well.

[RedBar]

For things that are working, best advice is don't break it by fixing it.

This is very good advice, regardless of what G says it's what G does that matters, if it's working, keep it until / or unless, it gets penalised.

[StupidIntelligent]

On a sidenote, 20K websites. Did I read that right. Wow. @PJMAN

[Pjman]

@StupidIntelligent that is correct. Been doing this since 1998, buying and build sites since then. Some sites are ten pages, others are ten-thousand.

[Pjman]

@tangor Great advice! It's something we all intrinsically know, but have to hear from someone else to believe it and make it real.

[VirtualVeena]

Very interesting insights.
Thanks all for sharing.