Keyword Density
By Eric Enge
You may have heard that you need to be concerned about keyword density. What is it? Keyword density is a measurement of the percentage of times that a given keyword (or phrase) appears on a page. For example, if you have a page about "blue widgets", then this would be the percentage of the two word phrases on your page were "blue widgets". This article will discuss this issue in detail.
There are many tools available if you type the phrase "keyword density" into Google. Part of the output from this keyword density tool looks like this:
You get the idea. You can use a tool like this to see what type of keyword density you have on your page. Note that different tools measure this a bit differently. For example, some tools consider keywords in your keyword metatags and description metatag.
Now that you have measured it, how does it matter? Not really. At STC, we don't spend any time discussing keyword density with our clients. The only time it might matter is if you are getting into an exercise of keyword stuffing, and this is not something we advise people to do.
We find that focusing on good content and great incoming links is where our energy is best spent. The only time we worry about keyword density is if we see a page that has implemented its main keyword so much that it begins to interfere with the user experience.
About the Author
Eric Enge is the President of Stone Temple Consulting. Eric is also a founder in Moving Traffic Incorporated, the publisher of Custom Search Guide, a directory of Google Custom Search Engines, and City Town Info, a site that provides information on 20,000 US Cities and Towns.
Stone Temple Consulting (STC) offers search engine optimization and search engine marketing services, and its web site can be found at: http://www.stonetemple.com.
