Keyword density

[puremetal]

Hi there,

I've been using a number of SE 'spider emulator' tools lately on one of the sites I'm working on.

For my top keyword phrase (two words) I get a density of about 3% on the index page of the site, and for the words seperately about 3.5% to 7% each.

On other content pages this phrase goes up to between 5% and 8%, and the individual words to 12% and 5% respectively.

Basically, is this good or bad? I have no basis for comparison. What would any of you say would be a target for key word density?

Thanks :-)

[jimbeetle]

In general, keyword density -- in and of itself -- really isn't a metric that search engines use to rank pages any longer. Sure, the basics still apply to some extent (keyphrase in the page title, h1, a couple of times here and there in the copy), but the SEs have moved far beyond that, looking at such things as the use of synonyms and related terms, co-occurrence of terms and other fancy factors.

The best general advice is to write copy that reads well. In some cases you might use the words in your keyphrase in a different order, throw in a couple of supporting terms, etc. It mostly depends on the individual situation, though solid, natural sounding copy is still the key.

Getting back to your question, yeah, those keyword densities are well within ballpark ranges (depending on whose ballpark, guestimates are all over the place), and at least shouldn't hurt a page.

[caveman]

Aside from jimbeetle's very well stated answer, sometimes it's also worthwhile to look at what successful competition does, if you have any concerns, or just want to get smarter about SEO. That exercise can be interesting at times. It's always the pages out at the fringes that teach you the most. ;-)