Posted on Friday 23rd of November 2007 at 05:02 in SEO

How to SEO your site: Episode 3 - Keyword density and keyphrase research

Welcome to the third in my SEO series: how to SEO your site. In this episode we're looking at the importance of keyword density, keyword research and how correct use of both can do wonders for your natural SEO.

I've found that asking regular bloggers what "keyword density" means is often met with confusion or muddled definitions. "It's the density... of the keywords"? Yes, that is indeed true but what does it mean in real terms? It's actually an interesting and important aspect of SEO that you really should pay attention to.

What is keyword density?
Like most experienced Internet users I made my way to the Wikipedia page for a textbook definition and while the page is rather empty it does hold the sentence "Keyword density is the percentage of words on a web page that match a specified set of keywords". So if I have a piece of content that says "The most important aspects of natural SEO is keyword density", "SEO" as a keyword has a 10% keyword density (as it appears once in 10 words).

How can keyword density be used to improve my natural SEO?
If you're trying to rank on Google for "improve your SEO" then you need to continually use the phrase "improve your SEO" throughout the piece of content. Search engines use keyword density as a way of scoring the relevence of your content against the specific search-phrase. Which is understandable when you think about it: if I search for "improve your SEO", a site that has that phrase on the page 10 times is likely to be more relevent than a page that only has 1 instance of the phrase.

Therefore it's important to think about your keyphrases before writing your content (especially if you're trying to target a specific search phrase on the search engine results).

The pitfalls of trying to abuse it
While no one has a precise figure for "desired" keyword density, it's important that you don't abuse it. In days gone bye webmasters would create pages filled with keywords and lists of keyphrases in a way to fool the primitive search engines that existed at the time. However, things have come a long way since then and Google is clever - clever enough to punish you for trying to be deceptive.

Synonyms and readability
In my experience it's crucial to avoid stuffing your content with keyphrases to the extent it becomes unreadable. Whatever website you're running you're trying to present your information to users in a useful way; stuffing it beyond readable limits is counter productive because for all the extra traffic your SEO campaign will bring, the users will become frustrated with your content and leave anyway.

I find adding synonyms to the content is one of the best ways to improve SEO and readability: you'll rank higher for the alternative keywords anyway. Google won't think you're trying to be deceptive and users will be able to digest your content - thus improving natural traffic (theoretically).

Keyword research
Unless you've already got a natural SEO campaign in mind (with specific keywords/phrases you want to target) then you're going to need to research what keywords to focus on. It's no use focusing on keyphrases that no one actually searches for is it? The best tool I've found for this purpose is the Overture Keyword Suggestion Tool, which gives you an indication of how often the word you enter is searched. More importantly it gives you other suggestions with their relative popularity - helping you shape you SEO campaign.

A useful tool
If you're still unsure, it's worth having a look at this keyword density analysis tool which breaks down your keyword density for a given page.

That's all I have to say on this topic. It can be awfully tiresome researching keywords and savvy readers will recognise a shameless attempt at keyword stuffing. Even if you mean it in the most sincere way you genuinely can't over-do it because either Google or your readers will punish you for it. In episode 4 I'll be talking about the use of social bookmarking/news as an SEO tool and how it can be suitably leveraged for natural SEO gains.

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