Keyword density and Google

Should I lower the density or leave it alone?

[WallaceCleaver]

I just showed up on Google in the www2 and www3. At this time I am listed on page 9 for my main keyword. For this word I have a keyword density of 16.81%. One of my comptitors, who is listed on page one, has a keyword density for this same word of 8.11%. They are also much more well known, so they have more links to their site. If I were to lower my keyword density would I move up in Google's listings or is my page 9 status due to the fact that my competitor has more links to their site?

The site that appears at number 1 for this keyword, on the other hand, has a density of 35.48%. Does 16 seems good? Should I raise or lower this number?

[JayC]

Conventional wisdom these days is that keyword density in that traditional sense is pretty low on the list of relevant factors in ranking at Google. So I wouldn't worry about it so much.

I'd suspect other factors are putting your competitors ahead of you; things like backward links and PageRank (have you checked your competitors PR with the toolbar? From the way I understand the situation, your own site would still not show any PR -- you're not yet in the main index, right?), link anchor text, header tags, page titles, etc. I'd recommend concentrating more on those elements, and not spending any more time tinkering with keyword density in the body text.

In any case, I wouldn't form any conclusions based on ranking until the update has settled in the main Google index.