There are so many aspects of SEO you need to consider if you want for it to be effective. Experts from all over the world are working on the topic, and they came up with various useful tactics. The point of keywords was always one of the most discussed topics. This is because they themselves are one of the most important parts of every effective SEO strategy. If you want to work on your online visibility, you’ll need to clearly understand the concept of keywords, as well as why they are so important for your SEO. However, there is one question that repeats over and over again- what is the best keyword density for search engines?
Our online marketing experience showed us that quantity is not always a card that wins the game. And although there still is no real answer to this dilemma, there may be a glimpse of a solution to our everlasting problem. But let’s just go step by step.
Understanding the meaning of the term Keyword Density
Keywords have always been one of the most important factors that influence your business’ Google ranking. What’s more, taking care of your keywords is one of the cheapest tactics to assure a better search position. Keyword density, on the other hand, refers to how many times a certain keyword is mentioned on a webpage or in particular content, and all of that when compared to the overall number of words that are used. Although this usually represents the exact keyword matches, the semantic keywords count as well.
Since keywords are words or come word constructions that are closely associated with the topic of the written content, search engines tend to use keyword density to determine the quality of the content they show. Namely, by using that, they can easily determine when a page is not relevant to a certain keyword or key phrase, thus meaning not relevant to the topic.
How to calculate keyword density?
Although math may sometimes seem like a real nightmare, calculating the keyword density is actually pretty easy. All you need to do is to follow this formula:
(The number of times a keyword appears on a page/ the total number of words on a page) * 100= keyword density
Let’s just take one example. If your written content has 500 words, and your keyword appears 5 times, then your keyword density will be exactly 1%.
Now, when the word count is not large, calculations will be a real piece of cake. However, it is hard to be precise when the content counts thousands of words. That is when an automatic keyword density checker tool such as smallseotools.com can really help. So, don’t bother with counting. Press the Check Density button and get your results.
The best keyword density for search engines is what?
Well, the truth is there is no real and precise answer to this question. Search engines do not define what should be that perfect number that would fit all the criteria. That may be because sometimes all of that varies from case to case, actually from page to page. Thus, everything you can do is to go through other people’s experiences and learn from the best practices.
Still, although we can’t really stick to one unique solution, it’s always good to hear what SEO and citation experts such as AZ Citation Services have to say about it. Namely, most of them think that the optimal keyword density that should appear on your page, and that will help our better ranking, is somewhere between 1% and 2%. So, for example, if the content of the page counts around 100 words, the suggested number of keywords would be 1 or 2. On the other hand, they also point out that it is not always about how many keywords you use, but also where you use them. Some of the best places would definitely be the title tag, headings, meta description, and the alt tags of the images you insert.
Be careful not to overdo it…
Even though we can’t make a statement about the keyword density search engines would appreciate, we can say something for sure. You must be careful and avoid keyword stuffing. Back in the past, page owners used to repeat a target keyword a countless number of times. They used this so-called black hat SEO tactic because it really helped them to get a better ranking position for their website. However, as you can guess, this kind of attitude led to numerous totally unnatural contents that every reader would seem excessive.
Nowadays, search engines seem to be more refined. The cheap tricks such as mere keyword repetition can’t fool them anymore. They use their algorithms to spot the problematic site, and then simply penalize it. That is why modern web owners today really devote their time to studying the core of SEO. They tend to learn everything about the important search ranking signals and they get ready on time.
But here’s what you should definitely do
- Use keyword variants. If you make a slight change, such as adding a prefix, pluralization, or using some synonymous terms that will make no harm to your content.
- Creating blog posts is one of the important aspects of business online promotion. That is why it is highly important to take care of what you write. Remember that content is the king. You write for your readers, and that’s why the quality of the content should be your top priority.
- Employ keyword clustering. Search engines tend to relate the keywords and the other words that surround them, thus figuring out basic information about the content. Some keywords are expected to appear with the other keywords, so if you cluster them that will have a positive impact on your online ranking position.
No one can really tell what is the best keyword density for search engines. However, that should not disappoint you. You can always learn from other people’s experiences. So wait no more to get the answers. Start learning and one day you may share your new experiences, as well.