How many time should a keyword be used in the body of text?

[Towelsrus]

We employee an outside agency to write content for our website as we do not have the ability in house to write unique and good quality content.

They have just sent an article which is around 300 words. I told them the keyword phrases to use. When I got the document there is only 1 instance of the keyword phrase(s) in it.

Now there seems to be a conflict here amongst posts I have read and general SEO advise as to how many times it should be present (SEOmoz indicates 4 times for instance), our outside agency says it doesn't matter.

Now if I have a page optimised for 2 keywords this starts making things tricky and probably looks keyword stuffed to the reader.

Assuming the keywords are present once in meta tags, H1, meta descriptions and alt text, what do people think is best practice taking into account recent panda updates?

Thoughts appreciated.

Thanks Craig

[KLLC]

When a user types in a search, Google typically relies on HTML elements to match the content on your site to that specific query. Without optimizing key HTML elements (title, body content, headers etc..), you won't be able to rank, it's as simple as that.

For now, the following diagram should help explain the basics of which elements need keyword research attention:

The "Perfectly" Optimized Page(for the example keyword phrase "chocolate donuts")

Page Title: Chocolate Donuts | Mary's Bakery

Meta Description: Mary's Bakery's chocolate donuts are possibly the mostdelicious, perfectly formed, flawlessly chocolately donuts ever made.

H1 Headline:Chocolate Donuts form Mary's Bakery

Image File name:         Body Text________________________

cocolate-donuts.jpg   chocolate donuts__                                        ____________________________________                                        donuts                                        ____________________________________                                        ____________________________________                                        chocolate donuts                                       ____________________________________ __________________________________________________________ donuts____ __________________________________________________________ chocolate__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ chocolate donuts________________ __________________________________________________________ _____________________________chocolate __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ ________________________chocolate donuts __________________________________________________________ Page URL: http://marysbakery.com/chocolate-donuts Ultimately you want to attract visitors who are going to convert into customers, if you can identify keywords which will lead to more conversions, you are more likely to see a good ROI.

Google in particular is becoming much more advanced at predicting the intent of searchers. For example, if you search for "apple," are you looking for the fruit or the technology company? Through a lot of user testing and machine learning, Google has determined that its users are probably looking for the technology company. Hence Apple's #1 position on Google.

While you do not have much control over this, user intention should be a priority when you are choosing and filtering your keywords. You want to be targeting keywords where the intention is likely to lead to a conversion for your business.

[Towelsrus]

That's a great response, thank you, really helpful.

What about making sure the first instance of your keyword is in bold close to the start of the body text?

Again I get mixed views on this.

Thanks

Craig

[KLLC]

Remember some points.

Allow H1 one time in the article.

Allow H2 two time in the article.

Allow H3 three time in the article.

Allow strong tag 3 time in the article. Note use strong tag not bold.

Allow underline tag 3 time in the article.

Allow italic tag 3 time in the article.

Keyword Density 1% in the article.

Always remember that content is king. simply focus on delivering high quality content.