Keyword Density Rules: Blogging To Higher Keyword Placement

Blog Critique: Blog SEO, Part III

We continue our critique of the DVD and CD Publisher blog. Today we’ll talk about keyword density. How dense is dense?

That’s a good question. The main thing to keep in mind about keyword density is there is no such thing as the perfect density. Keywords are important, but like ego’s you can’t inflate their importance without drawbacks nor can you treat them as if unimportant without consequences. It is most accurate to say that there is an optimal range of keyword density, but even the boundaries of that range are difficult to define as just two or three instances of a particular word could cause a page to rank high for that search term if there is not a lot of competition. By the same token, a large keyword density could keep a web page off of page 1 for a particular search term if there is a lot of competition. There are just too many variables in the keyword game to pinpoint the optimal density. Nevertheless, it does exist.

Keyword Density Rule No. 1

Let’s see if we can find some clue as to what the keyword is in this blog post, shall we? Our first clue is the blog post title. Examining the title of the blog post we see just one phrase related to the overall theme of the website – CD Presentations. However, none of the subheads in the first half of this blog post use that phrase or anything related.

Upon further examination we see that there is no mention of CDs or DVDs in the first half of this blog post at all. None. Zilch. Nada.

While the post isn’t poorly written, there doesn’t seem to be any keywords mentioned. Without keywords, the search engines will have a difficult time indexing this blog post. Unless I’m missing something, there ought to be a keyword related to the overall theme of the website. Otherwise, what’s the point?

So rule No. 1 in keyword density has to do with placement of your first keyword within the body of your post. Of course, you already know to include it in your blog post title and subheads. But it should also appear as early in your blog post as possible. You’ve got to give the search engines every reason to believe your blog post is relevant to the overall theme of your blog and that your important keyword is there. If your keyword doesn’t appear in the first or second sentence of the blog post, you’ll have a tough time convincing the search engines that you deserve a ranking for that keyword. Therefore, a proper keyword density requires that you place your keyword into the body of your blog post as early as possible.

Keyword Density Rule No. 2

Even more important than keyword placement is how often you place your keyword within your blog post. As said before, there is no optimal keyword density. Achieving the right keyword density is more an art than a science. There is no precision instrument anywhere in the world that will tell you that you’ve got your keyword density within the specified target area or that you’ve exacted the perfect keyword density. That’s because such concepts don’t exist.

I’ve seen keyword densities reach as high as 10% and I’ve seen them as low as 1%, both achieving front page results for the keyword in question. Again, it depends on the competitiveness of the keyword. That said, I think if you keep your keyword density somewhere around the 5% to 7% mark you can’t go wrong for most keywords.

Why do I say that? It’s real simple. Anything more than looks silly on the page and makes you sound like a befuddled loon. If the average sentence contains 5-10 words overall and every sentence in your blog post contains your keyword once then you’ll be repeating that keyword over and over again. Let’s say you write short sentences, 5 words each. That’s 20% keyword density if you write your keyword into every sentence. If you write long sentences (10 words each) then that’s a keyword density of 10%. Not that 10% is bad per se, but you’ll be using the same word in every single sentence you write. Is that natural?

No. People don’t talk that way. So why would you write that way? There is no need to include your keyword in every sentence of your blog post. However, you might have some paragraphs where you’ll use your keyword in every sentence. It just depends on how important your points are that you are making. Remember, writing a blog post is like talking to a friend. Would there be times that you might repeat the same word over and over again in casual conversation in order to make a point? Sure. So why wouldn’t you do that in a blog post?

Now let’s look at the CD/DVD Publisher blog again. In the second half of the blog post there are 9 instances of the words CD, CD publisher, and CD presentation in the screenshot above. That amounts to a 2.8% keyword density for the acronym “CD” just within that area of text. Not bad, but consider the entire blog post and the keyword density drops to 2.1%, and that includes the times “CD” appears in the title, signature links, and other places within that blog post. Counting just the body of the blog post alone, the keyword density is 1.6%. But “CD” a sufficient keyword to judge density by?

Keyword Density Rule No. 3

Keyword Density Rule No. 3 is to be sure you use the right keyword. And you also want to be sure you use that keyword, not a variation of it, as many times as possible. That’s not to say you can’t use variations of your keyword at all, but if you are trying to rank for one specific keyword then make sure that you repeat that keyword as often as is naturally possible within your blog post.

In the CD/DVD blog, for instance, it appears that the writer is jumping back and forth between “CD presentations” and “CD publisher.” This writer should choose one or the other and leave the other keyword for another blog post. By honing in one keyword at a time, your blog posts can achieve a higher keyword density for every keyword that you use.

A Summary of Keyword Density Rules

Keyword density is important, but it’s not the only measure of ranking a blog post in the search engines. Emphasize, but don’t overemphasize it. Of course, you don’t want to underemphasize it either.

Perhaps the single biggest mistake bloggers make with regard to keyword density is not including enough keywords in their blog posts. That is, they don’t include enough instances of the important keywords within their blog posts. That includes within the title, subheads, alt tags, title attributes etc. You can increase the number of times you use your important keywords just by adding an alt tag to your photos and a title attribute to your links. We’ll discuss those elements in tomorrow’s post. For now, let’s review:

Your three keyword density rules are:

1. Place your keyword as early in your blog post as you can
2. Use your keyword often
3. Make sure you use the right keyword every time

Keyword density isn’t rocket science, nor is it fantasy art. It is a real aspect of SEO, even when writing blog posts. Too many bloggers appear to be afraid of their keywords. One mistake often made with keyword density is to assume that putting your keyword in more often amounts to keyword stuffing. It really isn’t. Keyword stuffing is an issues to be concerned with, but if you write your blog posts in a natural way and don’t just toss your keyword more than you should so that you can fool the search engines into ranking you higher then you don’t have anything to worry about in keyword stuffing. Proper keyword density is like talking to your friends in a natural way. You use your keywords when it makes sense to and when it will benefit you and your readers to do so.

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