Impact of rogue keyword in content

[MickEdwards]

I have a page that is optimised - title, URL, content etc for the chosen keywords.

However, within the content are some batches of bullet point text that has repeated text throughout. So for example I have 5 instances of my chosen keyword within the content and 24 instances of the two word text within the bullet points.  Does this kind of scenario have any impact on ranking?

[CommercePundit]

hi,

it's really good way to make Unique title for users. as you said bullet point text has repeated with keywords. it can impact in CTR (click through Rate) if your ranking in top 10 listing . unique value always good users experience . just recently i go through Nathan_Safran post he has described very good numeric value about headline i would like to suggest you . hopefully you will get more ideas about unique Headline .

Thanks

[MickEdwards]

I don't think that is what i'm after.

I'm looking for the impact of a rogue keyword that is just within the content and is very popular, but not the keyword i'm optimising for within the content and tagging.  The rogue keyword is out of context as a bona fide keyword itself but is required and works well in the content.

I'm not too worried about keyword density but is there a point when a keyword phrase breaches a certain % even though it is not used within any tagging.

So if my keyword is 'blue elephant' but within the text I have a disproportionate amount of 'credit points' would it be prudent to try and reduce the level of 'credit points' - or ignore as there should be no impact?

[Devanur-Rafi]

Hi, can you tell us what would be the word count on the page in discussion? If my page has 200 words, then having a term occuring 24 times is definitely blown out of the roof and is blatant keyword stuffing. I hope you got the point here. So the same term occuring 24 times in the content of a page that has 2000 words in it mitigates the issue especially if the term is somehow related to the topic being covered on the page. Moreover, a term having way more KD (compared to the target term) on a page which is not being optimized for is something that makes me worried though the term is not used in title, description, URL, H1 etc.

I strongly feel, staying focussed (while covering some of the tightly related terms) is extremely important especially when writing content with an SEO intent. Scattered focus and having multiple unrelated keywords with substantial repetition in the content can harm as its confusing for the search engines trying to rank your page against your target term.

Best,

Devanur Rafi.

[Chris.Menke]

Do you feel your rankings are being held down because of this?

Your title tag will go a long way in pointing google to your primary keyword, as will the remaining copy on your page.  If title and the general vocabulary of your copy is primarily focused around your keywords you're probably in good shape. If those repeated terms you're talking about are so integral to the description of the product that you can't avoid using them, then it must also be true for your competitors--how do they handle it?

[Devanur-Rafi]

Excellent point Chris. Thanks for bringing this up.

Best,

Devanur Rafi.

[MickEdwards]

This is what made me question.  Competitors are typically returning their homepage so the content is in a different format to this internal page and don't have the rogue keyword.

My gut feeling is to try to reduce the rogue and increase slightly the desired keyword in the content. I might be able to create a key CP = Credit Points and use that just populating CP. I don't have any big problems with ranking and need to get some links going but i'm interested in this specific aspect so I can put it to bed.

[Chris.Menke]

If you have a landing page other than your homepage ranking for a term for which most of the competitors' results are their homepages, then I'd say your page is quite well zeroed in. Be sure to analyze and document specifically what you're doing on that page before making changes so you can go back to it if necessary.  At this point, it's probably authority that's that's going to push you higher in the rankings.  Even one or two links to that landing page from good resources will pay high dividends for you.