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Optimum_SEO_Keyword_Density_ _A_Real Life_Case_Study
| Optimum SEO Keyword Density - A Real-Life Case Study
So you've built your website, you know what keywords you want to
target (i.e. what words your customers are searching for), and
you're ready to write your copy. You've been told that you
should use your keywords frequently so that you appear in search
results for those words. But what does "frequently" mean?
How many times should you use your primary keyword? This case
study helps answer that question. Some background on
"Keyword Density"
In order to understand optimum keyword usage, we first need to
have some way of measuring keyword frequency. In the Search
Engine Optimization (SEO) world, frequency is actually referred
to as density. Keyword density is a measure of the number of
times your keyword appears on a page expressed as a percentage
of the total wordcount of that page. For example, if your page
has 100 words, and your keyword phrase appears 5 times, its
density is 5%. So when you hear someone say "keyword density",
that's normally what they're talking about. (TIP: You can
automatically check the keyword density of your page at LiveKeywordAnalysis.com.)
However, there is another, more complex measure of keyword
density which takes into account the text components in the HTML
of the page (i.e. the meta tags: Title, Keywords, Alt Text,
Description, and Comments). When using this measure, you don't
just count the words your visitor sees; you also count the words
in your meta tags. For example, if you have 100 words on your
home page, 10 words in your Title tag, 20 words in your
Description tag, 70 words in your Alt tags, and 10 words in your
Comments tag, your total wordcount for the page is 100 + 10 + 20
+ 70 + 10 = 210. Similarly, when counting keywords, you don't
just add up the number of times a visitor will see your keyword,
you also count the number of times that keyword appears in your
meta tags. For example, if your keyword appears 5 times in the
home page copy, 3 times in the Title tag, 5 times in the
Description tag, 30 times in your Alt tags, and twice in your
Comments tag, your total keyword count is 5 + 3 + 5 + 30 + 2 =
45. So with a total wordcount of 210 and a keyword count of 45,
your keyword density is 45/210 x 100 = 21%. It is argued that
this measure of keyword density is more relevant as the search
engines measure density in this fashion. (TIP: You can
automatically check the keyword density of your page using this
more complex measure at GoRank.com.)
As you can see, you need to be very aware of which measure
you're talking about when you're talking "keyword density". But
let me reiterate; mostly when people talk about keyword density,
they're talking the simple measure. What is the optimum
keyword density
And now down to business... What keyword density (of either
kind) should you be targeting on your website?
There's a lot of debate surrounding this issue because the
search engine companies don't disclose the details of their
algorithms (as that would allow people to abuse the system).
Instead, people working in the SEO world are left to figure it
out based on their experience.
A recent article by respected SEO and Blog expert, Wayne
Hurlbert, (see Keyword
Density: SEO Considerations) suggests that Google sees pages
with a keyword density of greater than 2% as spam. It was this
article which prompted me to analyze the keyword density of my
copywriting website.
CASE STUDY
The Website: This case study analyzes the website
for my advertising copywriting and SEO copywriting business,
Divine Write - http://www.divinewrite.com. For my primary
keyword, my site is now on page 1 of Google.com (out of
approximately 900,000 search results).
Number of pages on site: At the time of writing,
my website contained a total of 53 pages.
Primary keyword phrase: "copywriter"
Average keyword density: Using the simple measure
of keyword density discussed above, the average keyword density
of my copywriting website is 1.9%. Using the complex measure
it's 4.9%.
Keyword density range: Using the simple measure,
my density ranged from 0.4% to 7.6%. Using the complex measure
it ranged from 1.6% to 17.5% Some comments
on the keyword density figures The figures and
corresponding ranking detailed in this case study may not be
directly relevant to every site. There's a lot I don't know
about the algorithms and there are bound to be other factors at
play which I don't know about. With regard to Wayne
Hurlbert's article, it would seem that he is referring to
keyword density as calculated using the simple method discussed
above. The range figures are noteworthy because they
suggest that you don't need to be paranoid about having some
pages with a very high density and some with a very low
density. Conclusion
A simple keyword density of 1.9% can be enough for a first page
ranking in Google.com (assuming you have enough quality
backlinks - see SEO for CEOs and How to Top Google by Writing Articles for
more information).
Happy SEO writing!
You're welcome to publish this article free of charge provided:
- you include the byline - byline includes a functioning link to
http://www.divinewrite.com - you don't change the article in any
way - you provide a courtesy copy once published - in doing so
you agree to indemnify Divine Write and its directors, officers,
employees and agents from and against all losses, claims,
damages and liabilities which arise out of its use
About the author:
* Glenn Murray is an SEO copywriter and article
submission specialist. He is a director of article PR
company Article PR and also of copywriting studio Divine
Write.
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