SEO Codes

In the previous post, integrating keywords into a site copy was tackled. Now, your next concern is how many times you actually need to repeat your keywords to get results.  Opinions on this matter may vary, but in general, you want to have your keywords appear anywhere between 2-10 times per every 100 words of text. This ratio is also known as “keyword density.”

Keyword density is a combination of the number of times a keyword or a keyword phrase in proportion with other words that appears on a webpage. The more times the keyword appears in relation to the total number of on page words, the greater the keyword density and the more times that the other words appear, the lower the proportion of keywords, resulting in a lighter keyword density. In the context of SEO, keyword density can be used as a factor in determining whether a webpage is relevant to a specified keyword or keyword phrase.

As a general rule, you can try to integrate your keywords as often as you can without breaking up the natural flow of your copy. Thus, good copywriting is an essential component of SEO and at the end of the day, your page content needs to appeal to people as well as search engines.

The various search engines including Google consider keyword density as part of their search algorithm. Each search engine has a different mathematical equation regarding the density of keywords that is rewarded with higher search ranking placement. There is also a different level of tolerance between the different search engines as to the degree of density permitted before a penalty is imposed.

Keyword density is also important because search engines use this information to categorize a site's theme and the perfect keyword density will help achieve higher search engine positions. Take note also that a keyword density needs to be balanced correctly. If it is too low, you will not get the optimum benefit, and if it is too high, your page might get flagged for “keyword spamming.”