Will cleaning up HTML code increase keyword density?

I use Yahoo Sitebuilder & am learning to hand code.

[marlomojo]

I use Yahoo Sitebuilder, and I have top rankings for my keywords -- my keyword density is just over 2%. I am learning to hand code, which would obviously remove code bloat, which would, therefore, lead to a much higher keyword density. I don't want to mess with my Google rankings and am wondering if Google would then consider my site spammy if the density goes up too much.

This is my first post, but I learned so much about SEO from your forums -- that's why my site has been doing so well!

Thanks for any feedback!

[jbinbpt]

Hi marlomojo,
Welcome to webmasterWorld. Enjoy.

I would not worry too much about it. I doubt your density will go up all that much.

You should however, benefit from the cleaner code.

Less is more.

[netchicken1]

I doubt it...

Keyword density is the density of the keywords in the text.

By its nature html shouldn't be counted.

Try changing the text instead, or working with getting key phrases in your hyperlinks.

[marlomojo]

Thanks for the feedback. The tool I usually use to check keyword density was showing a much higher number after handcoding, but I discovered, due to a slight "error" -- I had inserted 2 dashes, like the ones I just typed (--), that all the content after that was not being "read"; once I changed it to 1 dash, the keyword density went right back to where it was originally (where I want it to be!)

I'm sure I will have more questions. I LOVE learning this stuff!

[netchicken1]

Good one :)

Me too :)

Webmaster world is great for things like this :)

[seoram]

The acceptable Keyword density for any page is 5% - 20% so there is nothing to worry abt it for you.

[miki99]

I ALWAYS use a double dash (--). Seriously, this causes a problem? Please verify this, I need all the help I can get. Thanks all.