Keyword density is an important concept to understand when it comes to optimization. Whether you have a website or a blog, keyword usage is essential to content creation. But what is keyword density exactly, and why does it matter? Learn all about this topic below, including how to calculate keyword density.
Key Takeaways
- Keyword density is the percentage of times a specific keyword appears in content relative to its word count.
- Having an appropriate number of keywords on a page helps Google and others determine if your information is relevant, useful, and interesting for users searching for terms related to that topic.
- Calculating keyword density involves dividing the number of times a keyword appears by the total word count and multiplying the result by 100 (number of keywords ÷ word count) x 100 = keyword density). Tools such as SurferSEO, Yoast, and Semrush will display this percentage automatically for you.
- Avoid keyword stuffing when optimizing content; focus on covering the topic thoroughly and ensuring your content is high quality to naturally hit the top keywords and variants for that topic an appropriate amount of times.
What Does Keyword Density Mean?
Keyword density refers to the percentage of times a specific keyword appears in a piece of content relative to the word count. Having an appropriate number of keywords on a web page helps search engines determine that your information is relevant, useful, and interesting to users searching for related terms. Other places to include keywords include your H1, URL, page title, and meta description.
The idea behind keyword density is that if there are too many occurrences of a certain term on a page, then it could be seen as keyword stuffing (aka spammy) instead of being helpful and informative. On the other hand, if there are not enough occurrences of specifically targeted words, then search engine bots may not recognize the relevance of the page.
This is why it’s so crucial to strike a balance between keyword density and how many words are on the page. Some keyword density checker tools will give you an ideal keyword density for your content, but what matters most is covering the topic thoroughly and factually to satisfy search intent. You will naturally use your target keyword and related terms if you do this, rather than trying to hit a specific keyword density formula.
Why Does Keyword Density Matter?
When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO) and getting your content seen online, keywords play a huge role. If you have too few keywords in your content, Google won’t recognize the web page as relevant and won’t give it much weight when determining rankings on SERPs as a result. And if you use too many keywords, Google can penalize your page for making it difficult to read.
Here’s a look at why keyword density matters:
Keywords Provide Search Engines With Context
By combining quality information with relevant key phrases and semantically related terms throughout your text, search engine bots will have no problem understanding what each web page contains, increasing your chances of reaching higher rankings over time (and leading to improved performance overall).
When you write content, you want to include keywords that not only help your audience find important information but also provide search engines with context on what the page is talking about. Search engines use these keywords to determine which results to show when someone performs a search query.
If you don’t include any relevant keywords in your content, then search engines won’t be able to match it up with what people are looking for. By including targeted keywords throughout your content, you make sure that search engines can accurately gauge what topics your website covers.
Knowing Keyword Density Helps With Quality Control
When optimizing content for specific keywords, the number of times they appear within the text matter. Having too many instances of a single keyword will make your article seem spammy and unnatural. However, having too few instances may result in the algorithm not recognizing it enough to rank your page higher in relevant searches.
This is where understanding keyword density comes into play, as having an appropriate level of frequency for each targeted keyword phrase will help ensure maximum visibility when someone does a relevant search query.
Helps You Optimize for Search Intent
Search engines, like Google, want you to focus on creating meaningful content that adds value to the reader rather than tricking their algorithm with keywords. So, having a high keyword density in your content can suggest to the search algorithm that you’re trying to trick it into ranking your content.
This is black hat SEO, which can lead to penalties from Google or even being removed from indexing. To get the right keyword density, it’s best to allow your keywords to appear naturally in your content rather than trying to stuff them inside.
“Keyword density, in general, is something I wouldn’t focus on. Make sure your content is written in a natural way. Humans, when they view your website, they’re not going to count the number of occurrences of each individual word. And search engines have kind of moved on from there over the years as well. So they’re not going to be swayed by someone who just has the same keyword on their page 20 times because they think that this, kind of, helps search engines understand what this page is about. Essentially, we look at the content. We try to understand it, as we would with normal text. And if we see that things like keyword stuffing are happening on a page, then we’ll try to ignore that and just focus on the rest of the page that we can find.”
John Mueller, Google
Improves User Experience
User experience is a vital consideration for website owners. And when it comes to content, ensuring your users get the best experience can help increase conversions and reduce bounce rates. But how does keyword density affect user experience?
Adding too many keywords to your content affects readability and can make your site seem spammy and untrustworthy. This can lead to a bad user experience and cause web visitors to click away immediately and never return.
Knowing your keyword density percentage will help you recognize when you’ve done too little — and too much — optimization.
Is Keyword Density a Ranking Factor?
When we say ranking factor, we are referring to the elements considered by web crawlers to position content on SERPs. Site speed, mobile compatibility, a quality backlink profile, and domain authority are some factors considered. Keyword density was a ranking factor in the early days of web content optimization. However, this led to poor-quality content stuffed with keywords, aimed at increasing rankings by tricking the algorithm.
Fast forward to today. Keyword density isn’t considered a ranking factor anymore, which is why Google and other authoritative sites will not provide users with an optimal keyword density range. However, it’s still important to target keywords and related terms, but it’s less important to get them on a page a certain number of times.
Combining natural keyword density with high-quality content that meets search intent can help web crawlers easily understand your content. This kind of content has a higher chance of ranking.
How to Calculate Keyword Density
To calculate keyword density, you’ll divide the number of times a keyword appears by the total number of words in your content. Then, multiply the result by 100 since keyword density is a percentage. Here’s a simple equation:
Number of keywords ÷ word count x 100 = keyword density
Let’s look at an example. Say a blog post has the term ‘matcha latte’ in it approximately 30 times. If the total number of words in the blog post equals 1,500, the keyword density is 2%.
30 ÷ 1500 x 100 = 2% keyword density
Tools for Calculating Keyword Density
If you’d rather not have to do the math, you can use SEO tools that offer a keyword density checker. These tools base the suggested percentage on the current highest-ranking content in the SERPs on the same topic. Popular options include SurferSEO, Yoast, and Semrush.
Do Keyword Variants Count?
Keyword variants are words or phrases that are similar to the original keyword. For instance, in this article, we can replace the term ‘keyword density’ with ‘keyword frequency’ and still rank for the same intent. There are several reasons why using keyword variation in your strategy is vital. For one, it can help reduce your keyword density while retaining meaning. Additionally, it can help you rank for more keywords within the search intent.
When users search, they can do so with various terms but with the same intent. These variations are words, tenses (singular or plural), misspellings (like entrepeneur instead of entrepreneur), stemming, etc. So, targeting these variations and using them in your content can help it come up whenever users use variants instead of your primary keyword, which is a plus to your ranking and online visibility.
What Is Keyword Stuffing?
Keyword stuffing is adding a keyword (or keywords) into your content in an excessive manner. It’s also called spamdexing or web spam. This practice provides no advantage to your content and should be avoided. Some of the disadvantages of keyword stuffing include:
- Causes content to be flagged as spam by web crawlers
- Increases reading difficulty of the content
- Reduces content quality
- Reduces user experience
- Increases bounce rate
- Reduces conversion rate
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is the Ideal Percentage of Keyword Density?
It’s important to note that there’s no perfect answer when it comes to the ideal percentage of keyword density, as this will depend on various factors such as website niche, competition levels, industry trends, and more. Also, experts disagree on whether higher or lower key phrase densities are better — although it’s indisputable that it’s best to avoid overloading pages with too many keywords as this could appear spammy and lead to penalties from search engines. When deciding what percentage of key phrases should be used in your web pages and blog posts, consider how long your text is — if you’re writing a very short post, you may need to reach closer to 4% keyword density for the text to be ‘rich’ enough for search engines. But if you’re writing an extensive article or page, then lower percentages might be sufficient.
Does Keyword Density Actually Matter?
Knowing your keyword density matters because it helps you know when you’ve under- and over-optimized your content. While it’s best to focus on high-quality topic coverage, user intent, and content trustworthiness, knowing keyword density can help you achieve your goals and come up higher in the SERPs. For instance, a balanced keyword density can ensure your users get the best experience from content that is authoritative, engaging, and relevant. This can keep them on your page longer and increase your chances of converting them to buying customers.
What Is the Difference Between Keyword Density and Keyword Research?
Keyword density and research are two terms used by SEO professionals. However, while keyword density refers to the percentage that a certain keyword appears in your content, keyword research is the process of identifying relevant keywords for your site. Keyword research entails creating a customer persona, understanding their intent, finding the keywords that best describe their pain point, and creating a cluster (grouping keywords).
What Is the Difference Between Keyword Density and Keyword Difficulty?
While keyword density is the measure of how often a keyword phrase appears compared to the total number of words in a piece of content, keyword difficulty is an SEO metric considered during research. The difficulty of a keyword refers to how hard it’ll be to rank for that keyword on the first SERP. It depends on competitors, search intent, domain authority, backlinks, and content quality. Keyword difficulty is measured on a scale of 0 to 100.
Balance Your Content for the Best Results
In conclusion, while striking the right balance between too few and too many keywords isn’t always easy, understanding why keyword density matters for SEO purposes gives you insight into why you should prioritize both relevancy and visibility when optimizing your site’s content. This should ultimately lead you toward achieving higher organic rankings on SERPs.
Now that you know what keyword density is, you can ensure you aren’t under- or over-optimizing your content to keep readability high, boost your rankings, and keep your readers coming back for more.
Raymond Li is known for his deep understanding of SEO and ability to develop successful client campaigns. His technical expertise and creativity have helped businesses of all sizes to improve their organic search presence. Ray enjoys playing ultimate frisbee and exploring the local cuisine when not dominating the SERPs for a wide array of juicy keywords.