What Is Keyword Density And Why Is It Important?

When trying to optimize your website, you hear a lot about Keyword Density. It is a very important part of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which is the process of getting your site a high rank on Google and similar search engines. This article will help you determine what Keyword Density is, and how you can use it to optimize your site for search engines.

Definition

Keyword Density just means what percentage of your content consists of your target keywords. So if you want someone to search Google for "dog grooming tips" to find your blog on dog grooming (for example), your main keyword would be "dog grooming tips". So if 18 out of 200 words in the main content on your website's homepage are part of the phrase "dog grooming tips", then you have a 9% keyword density.

Importance

Keywords help search engines like Google find your website based on people's searches. Continuing with the dog grooming example, when someone searches for "dog grooming tips", Google tries to find the most relevant pages. And how does it measure relevance? It is a combination of backlinks, which is a whole different ballgame (number of sites which have links to your site), and keyword matching. It uses the keywords in your main content to determine what your site is about. So if your site says "dog grooming tips" five times on the front page, Google is more likely to pick it up as a good result to show someone searching for "dog grooming tips".

What now?

Now that you understand Keyword Density, you should try to adhere to the following standard: keep it between 3% and 20%. It is important that your content contains your keyword at least a few times. If your content is 300 words (an appropriate length) and your keyword is the three-word phrase "dog grooming tips", you should mention that phrase at least 3 times and at most 20 times. But be sure to make sure your content is still readable - nobody is going to stay on your site if you just say "dog grooming tips dog grooming tips dog grooming tips" over and over! Your content needs to be readable and informative, but center around your keywords.

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