On-Page Keyword Optimization Question

[GrouchyKids]

First let me say I want to improve the text of the site I am working on focusing on the site visitor in the first instance.

I run the "On-Page Keyword Optimization"

The page fails on "Avoid Keyword Stuffing in Document... ...Occurrences of Keyword 48" well over the limit of 15.

The occurrence include those in the site navigation and strapline, but it was my understanding that Google was aware of nav areas/areas common to most other pages on the site and that keywords in these areas weren't viewed as being part of the page content.

The keyword is the main keyword for the company, and the page is the home page i.e. "acme widgets" the others are "acme widgets for the home"... well you get the idea:

The page breaks down as follows:

• 5 instances in primary nav
• 1 instance strapline
• 3 instances secondary nav
• Remainder in page body

I am told by the tool to reduce to 15 instances, so should I?

• Have 9 instances in the nav and other areas and 6 or so on the page
• Have 9 instances in the nav and other areas and 15 or so on the page

[MSSTORAGE]

If this is the only criteria that your page is failing on, i wouldn't worry about it too much.

If you think having 48 occurences of your keyword is beneficial to the user of the site i would leave it as is.

edit: From your info above it would suggest that you have 39 occurences in the body of your text. This does actually sound a little bit over the top. If you're able to get this down to around 6 i think your customers would find you content more useful.

[AlanBleiweiss]

Yes, they give the content area the most weight in regard to individual page topical focus, however search engines do evaluate  every word on a page, including content within the source view that visitors don't see.  This is why having too much content in header, sidebar and footer areas, or too much code at the source view level causes topical confusion / topical dilution and is considered during the duplicate content evaluation process as well.

The best I can offer in regard to how often a phrase should appear on a page is "does this feel like I repeat this phrase too much?"  If you've got the same phrase repeated fifteen times just in the content area, there should be a valid reason other than just SEO reasoning for that.  And a LOT of text around those.