There have been numerous changes in the ranking algorithm where the search engine Google has rolled out updates like Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird.
The rules for off-page SEO have changed and there are many unsaid rules that the high authority website administrators are aware of.
Despite these changes, the on-page SEO has retained its significance.
For getting high traffic to your blog, you could perform off-page activities like guest blogging, infographic submission, web 2.0s, local SEO, but if the on-page SEO skills are on point, there can be nothing stopping you from ranking high in the SERPs.
So, how do you ensure that while writing the blog, you secure half your chances of blog ranking?
While there’s a quick list of on-page pointers to note, having optimal keyword density is one of the most important aspects.
What Is Keyword Density?
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Keyword density is the number of times your primary keyword (the one you wish to rank for) occurs in the blog copy (or content copy) in comparison to the total number of words on that particular web page.
It is of high importance so that the search engines can crawl your page by understanding the content.
With the correct keyword density, the search engines can understand that your page is relevant to the search that a particular user would make.
What Is The Best Keyword Density In SEO?
The experts in SEO in the content marketing industry suggest that the fair keyword density is 1-3%.
The simple formula to calculate this percentage is K/T*100, where K is the number of occurrences of the primary keyword and T is the total number of words in a content copy.
While calculating this percentage, ignore the HTML code, or the image codes that you might have added to the copy.
Analyze Your Keyword Density
For high traffic to your website, you need to adopt smarter methods.
Writers and website admins, you need to know that inserting the keyword that you want to rank for is not the only thing to do. The relevance of your keywords to the content copy must be justified.
Given that the smart engines are smart, you need to be smarter. Create a content copy where your keywords can fit in flawlessly.
The basic rule to on-page SEO is that it is not just the writing that appeals Google, or similar search engines. It is rather the writing that appeals to your audience and presents clear thoughts.
Hence, when you write informative pieces on a topic after apt research, you shall automatically be able to embed the required keywords.
So the thumb rule is, keep the interests of your audience first and you’ll hit the nail right. Follow the adage – Google only loves you when everyone else loves you first.
Here are few questions whose answers might right away solve the mystery of Keyword density in SEO.
Answer To All Keyword Density Question
So, should I insert more keywords to secure high ranking on search engines?
Answer
As mentioned earlier, a good on-page SEO means that it should be user-friendly and should appeal to the audience. When you say I should insert more keywords that means inserting keywords way above the benchmark percentage of 3%.
In such writing, your reader would get irritated in reading the same word multiple times. Also, today’s smart readers know this is your SEO strategy.
Since the web search engines are user-friendly, they won’t buy this strategy either.
So, what should be done instead that improves your density of keywords, helps in your page ranking, and also gives your website visitors a good reading experience?
It is simple.
What would a good writer do when he wants to avoid the repetition of same words or phrases?
They would use synonym keywords, or what you call in SEO language, LSI keywords. The Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) Keywords or also called the secondary keywords can the replacement keywords for your primary keywords.
They could also be the closely related keywords for which you want your content copy to rank for.
Keep one thing in mind that your supporting keywords or the secondary keywords should also not exceed the right keyword density.
This means their occurrence in your content copy should also not be more than 1-3%. Thus, keyword stuffing is always wrong. Anything higher than 5.5% is considered keyword stuffing.
In fact, many experts tell that the over use of keywords in your content copy might actually be the retarding factor in your success.
So, could I select ANY keywords for my copy and maintain the optimal keyword density?
Answer
It is always recommended to use long tail keywords.
As the name suggests, the long tail keywords are the long word terms. These are generally three to four words long that closely relate to what you are writing about.
The CTR or the click-through-rate to your web page shall increase when you use long tail keywords. This is because people who use long tail keywords are looking for the best results and want to get an answer without much research.
You certainly don’t want to miss out on these customers.
The answer to these questions is a must to have a grip on the keyword game. But there are few rules that you must follow as well.
MUST FOLLOW – Keyword Density Rules
Thumb Rule 1
Highly specific multi-word phrases rank easier
Another good news is that while using long tail keywords, the shorter keywords are usually covered and in this way, you will find your web page ranking for a number of desired key terms.
So the answer to the question that could you use just ANY keyword would be – research and analyze.
There are tools to help you select the right keywords that people worldwide, or in specific countries are looking for. Some of these are AHREFS.com and LSIgraph.
Also, the most basic way to find these keywords is to make a search query relating to your content copy. At the end of the first page of the search results, you shall find some keyword suggestions.
These keywords are the ones being mostly searched. You can pick these and weave your content around them. The content body is not the only place to work on your keyword density.
This has been a proven fact that spreading your keywords all through your content copy, genuinely and uniformly, helps your users to enjoy a premium reading experience.
Such a content copy is easy to understand and comprehend. The more your content is easy to grasp, the more loyal visitors you get.
So, where else, other than your content body, can you use your primary keywords?
You ‘must’ use your primary keyword in your headings.
Your headings are the best friends of the search engines. Hence, ensure that they are easy to read and understand by the search engines. The best strategy to do that is embedding your keywords in them. This gives the information that your blog is about.
Thumb Rule 2
The primary keyword MUST be a part of your H1 (heading 1) or the blog title.
You just cannot afford to miss on this.
Your page title is your H1 and having your keyword there is of utmost importance. For the other headings (H2, H3 and so on), it is good to use the secondary keywords.
Point to note – When you count the total keyword density, you must include the keywords used in the headings as well.
But, why would you count the keywords when there are tools out there to do the job for you?
Analyze Your Keyword Density By Using These Tools
You might be writing a content copy with 10,000+ words. So, how do you keep a count of the number of times you have used the keywords.
Well, yes, you can find many smart tips but there are some tools that help you do your job easily. You could install this chrome extension ‘SEO Quake chrome extension’.
This is a free plugin that provides you many insights of SEO. It also performs the on-page audit of your copy, and density of keywords is one part of it.
Then there is this free website that helps you analyze your keyword density – smallseotools.com. The website also provides free plagiarism check that is again useful for the content writers.
For a premium service for checking the keyword density in SEO, there is this software, ‘website auditor by link assistant’.
It is one of the best keyword density tools in the market, however, it is paid. You can use the 14-day free trial to check the services.
Content Marketing Tip
Keyword density is one of the many, but still an important factor for your web page ranking.
As per Brian Dean, an internationally acknowledged SEO expert, there are about 200 factors that you might consider for optimizing your on page, and keyword density is an important part of it.
You can not entirely rely on the keyword density for ranking high since the chances of your ranking depend on the keyword difficulty, yet, it impacts ranking.
So, make sure you cover the vital information of your content copy by using the accurate blend of keywords.
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