Number of keywords on a given page

Does Google put relevance on them

[sparticus]

I have a website which repeats the main search term we're targeting about 50 times on the index page. I notice that we're doing quite well in Google for that phrase, but not as well in a number of other major search engines. Does Google or any other search engine penalise, or praise you if a phrase is repeated that much - even if it's in context and perfectly grammatical?

[percentages]

sparticus,

I personally believe keyword density is related to the competitions keyword density. So how many times your primary keywords should appear should be based upon how often they appear in the competitive sites.

Disclaimer: The above only applies if all other primary ranking attributes are equal. i.e. you have roughly equal PR, you have a similar number of backlinks, anchor text quality....etc,etc.

Keyword density is not a primary factor these days for SE's, it is just the iceing on the cake when you're close to competitors.

[Stefan]

Welcome to WW, Sparticus.

Fifty times might be overdoing it a little depending on how much text there is on the page. It might hurt more than help having that many.

[sparticus]

Thanks for the welcome :)

Am I allowed to post the URL as an example?

[Stefan]

Nope, against TOS :)

Added: Try a site search for "keyword density". There are a lot of threads that discuss it. Cheers.

[Chris_R]

I would seriously doubt google penalizes for this. In the original papers - google claims they have a cutoff point (which they don't tell you) for keywords and stuff.

The more a keyword is repeated - the higher the score up to a point.

This only make sense. Otherwise you would innocently hurt people that had:

"A rose is a rose is a rose."

or:

name: steve phone: [phone]
name: bob phone: [phone]
name: ricky phone: [phone]
...
...
...

[sparticus]

OK, well, let's just say it's an information portal for a particular region of the world and on the front page we've got a list of links eg.

Widgetville Real Estate - buy or sell Widgetville property
Wigetville Accommodation - book hotels in Widgetville
Widgetville Maps - find a street in Widgetville

So in that context 'Widgetville' appears about 50 times.

I'm just wondering if anyone can say with any certaintly whether that's going to get us in trouble or otherwise?

[sparticus]

I can see how 'name' would be acceptable in that circumstance, but if you had 'name' in the page title and you were obviously promoting 'names' wouldn't it look like spam?

[percentages]

>Widgetville Real Estate - buy or sell Widgetville property
>Wigetville Accommodation - book hotels in Widgetville
>Widgetville Maps - find a street in Widgetville

I can say for certain you will not get penalized for that type of page....I've got loads of them. You may not always rank at the top, but a penalty....nope!

<added>It is no different to [google.com...] </added>

[Chris_R]

spam shmam. I think %s is right - your chances of getting in trouble are pretty small. I just don't think it is that helpful. Google isn't going to keep giving you points after a certain point (why would they?) so why do it? But if it is the only way to describe your product - goto it if it makes you happy.