Keyword Density

[nytrokiss]

I have seen many site's that offer Keyword Desnity services however all report a diffrent density on my site so how can i get one that i know is good and true!

[sootledir]

I have seen many site's that offer Keyword Desnity services however all report a diffrent density on my site so how can i get one that i know is good and true!

I'm going to go out on a limb here and tell you that I have landed many top 3 (1,400 at last count) terms in Google, and I have never once concerned myself with keyword density. IMHO, you're better served writing as naturally as you can.

[Chris Boggs]

sootledir is standing on a sturdy limb...keyword density is... "so passe."

[nytrokiss]

so what would you say would be the " killer secret" to get places on search engine's links?

[NoMass]

Booooring!!!!!

The white hat discourse on this forum is always the same dribble:
"do things naturally", "create websites for surfers, not SE", etc..
This is blather that serves no purpose on an SEO (let me emphasis that: Search Engine OPTIMIZATION) forum. To be honest, people that respond to queries for help with these white hat comments should rather shut up and not say anything.

Sootledir: yes, I have done this too. I’ve got a website with PR8 from which I can get top rankings for almost anything I can think of. On the other had, I have a PR4 site that is up against PR5 and 6s, which I have skilfully beat to the top places. Now, I did this not by “writing naturally”. On the contrary, the site was originally written naturally, and they were not even ranked in the top 100. I was hired to get them to the top, so the first thing I did was re-write the text, stuffed (not too much) with keywords. Guess what, their monthly traffic has gone from the hundreds of visitors, to the thousands.

Now, to answer the original question: Keyword density is a bit of a black art. From my experience it actually differs depending on the other content of the page. Google seems to have implemented an OOF (over optimization filer). So, if you have included you keywords in an H1 tag, your body KD should be much reduced. If you have lots of image ALT tags with the keywords, it should be further reduced. The only way to get the KD just right is: experiment. Try stuff the page with a 3% density. Give it a few weeks. Check google. Then reduce the density to 2%. Wait. Check google. Keep this up till your at the highest point of the SERPs.

[Chris Boggs]

Booooring!!!!!

The white hat discourse on this forum is always the same dribble:
...

So you should speak up more often! Only 11 posts since January? ;)

Now, to answer the original question: Keyword density is a bit of a black art. From my experience it actually differs depending on the other content of the page. Google seems to have implemented an OOF (over optimization filer). So, if you have included you keywords in an H1 tag, your body KD should be much reduced. If you have lots of image ALT tags with the keywords, it should be further reduced. The only way to get the KD just right is: experiment. Try stuff the page with a 3% density. Give it a few weeks. Check google. Then reduce the density to 2%. Wait. Check google. Keep this up till your at the highest point of the SERPs.

A "black art." :p OK so you are saying diminish the content-use of the keyword if it's used in an H1 tag? You say give it a few weeks? This assumes that Google will have recrawled by then or that Google has not already placed the page in the supp. index...I feel that maybe this should be specified when you advise this. When you try to "stuff with a 3% density," is this with or without H1 use? How about the Page's title? Is that important?

I have found that the ALT Attribute only really work well with actual image links...your opinions on that?

[mcanerin]

First, the "appropriate" level of KWD is that which a search engine assigns to a particular search, No more, no less. For some search terms this can be upwards of 20%, for others, 1%. It's search term specific. The actual number comes from an analysis of all the websites that also show up for the term.

Second, a SE doesn't just look at the KWD of the search term, it also looks at other, related terms it gleans from TVA and checks their KWD as well. If you are raising your KWD at the expense of those other terms, you are lowering your overall relevance score. There is no such thing as an over optimization filter. It's yet another myth. The net effect of stuffing keywords on a page will result in your rankings going down, but there is no special filter for this - it's just that you are lowering your KWD for the other terms, and moving away from an optimal score for your main one.

No black magic, no CIA plot, no special anti-SEO filter.

Finally, the second myth that needs to be quashed here is the idea of "writing naturally". What is natural writing?

If *I* write about a particular subject, it will be written in a very different fashion, with different words and grammer, than someone with a different educational background, or from a different country. What's "natural" for me may not be "natural" for someone else.

The sad fact is that some times of "natural" writing are not well rewarded by search engines in certain SERPS.

But that's a different topic for a different thread. I just wanted to mention it while I was on the subject.

Ian