Keyword Density

There are so many things involved in SEO, or search engine optimization, that it would be impossible to cover them all in one article. Books can be written on the subject. So, in this particular article, we're going to discuss the concept of keyword density and try to explain it in simple to understand terms, although doing this correctly is anything but simple. It is the hopes of this author that after reading this, you will have a decent idea of what keyword density is and how to optimize yours correctly.

First thing you need to understand is what a keyword is. A keyword is a word, or could also be a phrase, that describes what your site is about. For example, let's say that you had a site on bowling and bowling tips. Some of your keywords might be bowling, bowling tips, bowling etiquette, bowling balls, bowling shoes, and so on. Whatever your site talks about, in regard to bowling, you want to have a keyword to designate this. Why? Well, the search engines base their rankings of your site largely upon the relevancy of your site.

If you have a site on bowling, the search engines are going to want to see that you are in fact speaking about bowling and not golf. So they will look for keywords relevant to bowling. Now, these keywords need to appear in two places. The first place, which has nothing to do with density, is in your keyword meta tag. This is where you would list the keywords, separated by comas, for each keyword your site related to. The second place these keywords need to be, and this is where keyword density comes in, is in the content of your site itself. By content, I mean any articles that you may have written that appear on your site.

What keyword density is, is how often those keywords appear on each page. This is where people get into trouble. They think that is they simply stuff their page with these keywords, repeating them over and over, that this will get your page moved up the search engines quickly. This is not the case, unfortunately. The search engines have gotten a lot smarter since the old days and now look out for these keyword stuffed pages. If they find that your page is keyword stuffed, they will simply ban your page.

So, then what is a good keyword density? Everybody has a different view on this. Some say 10%, some say 5%. I say, write how you naturally write. If you're writing an article on how to do the 3 step delivery for bowling, then write it the way you would if you were writing a book. Don't try to appease the search engines because you'll end up writing something that real people won't want to read. Be natural and be yourself and if you're writing on the topic, trust me, your keywords will appear more than enough to get your site moved up the search engines.

Keyword density is not rocket science. It's just common sense.

Use some and you'll be just fine.