Understanding and being able to calculate the keyword density on your Web pages is essential for keyword optimization. Read on to learn how to figure keyword density and what optimal density ranges are for your target keywords.
What is Keyword Density
While using keyword phrases in Web page text is important, what is more important is using keywords in the right relationship to other words on the page. This is called keyword density. Search engines have determined optimal keyword to content ratios and rank pages higher that use these ratios.
How Keyword Density is Determined
Keyword density is figured by using a simple formula:
Number of times keyword is used / Total word count on page = Keyword Density
How Keywords are Counted Up While the formula is generally simple, there is a variable that keeps determining keyword density and optimizing for engines an exciting game. How keywords are counted up varies depending on the search engines criteria.
For example: some engines count keywords used in the meta descriptions, image tags, title tags and the text on the page while others count up keyword usage from the body copy only. (We’ll leave the discovering of which engines count which ways up to you.)
The Right Ratio
The most essential part of optimizing keyword density is using the correct ratio of keywords-total words on your page. Keyword density ratios are discussed as a percentage. A good range for keyword density for a target keyword is 2% to 6%. Meaning, when you divide the number of times you used a keyword on your page by the total number of words on your page you should get a percent somewhere between 2 and 6.
The Wrong Ratio
Having a too high or too low keyword density can be to your page’s detriment. If the density is too low your page will be considered an irrelevant result for that keyword phrase. But don’t be fooled into thinking a higher keyword density equals a more relevant result. Search engines combat spam pages by penalizing pages with a too high keyword density, or keyword:total word ratio.
Help for Figuring Keyword Density
Calculating keyword density can get to be a real chore if you are trying to do it by hand or with a calculator alone. Luckily, there are keyword density services online that can help. There is software you can purchase, however we like to use the free service, Keywordcount.com.
