How important is keyword density?

[nicole.healthline]

Several leading experts say that keyword density isn't all that important. What do you think of keyword density? Do you incorporate it into your day to day activities?

[AlanBleiweiss]

My own rule of thumb is to incorporate each of the top two or at most three primary phrases at least once, the top phrase at least twice, in the content - with the content being at least 400 words (or more) - and the more content, the more it needs to then have the partial phrases thrown into the writing.  But there's no set formula for keyword density anymore. too many other factors to consider these days.

[Charlessipe]

I think it is important to have the keyword phrase you are targeting at least 1-2 times in the body content and it helps to have it in the title tags, image alt tags, and URL. Natural writing patterns typically don't have the same phrase repeated several times and we often see pages that rank very highly for a phrase without multiple instances of that phrase on the page.

"A complete myth as an algorithmic component, keyword density nonetheless pervades even very sharp SEO minds. While it's true that more usage of a keyword term/phrase can potentially improve targeting/ranking, there's no doubt that keyword density has never been the formula by which this relevance was measured." -Rand Fishkin

[DaveGerecht]

Both Alan and Charles seem to have hit the nail on the head. On the one hand the keywords have to be in the content, and don't be surprised when you get customers asking you why!

The search engines follow what the human reads. Content that is stuffed with keywords, especially your meta-tags and alt-tags, will quickly get noticed by Google.

My rule of thumb is;

Main keyword - 3 times on homepage, also on every other page possible

Sub-level keywords - 1 time on homepage, wherever possible inside the website

[EGOL]

I pay zero attention to keyword density.  I write naturally - when you are trying to write well that is a big enough job.

Setting KW density goals is a good way to screw up a great article.

[Benj25]

There is a good article on this subject here:

http://memeburn.com/2011/07/good-content-density-can-help-your-seo-strategy/

[MarieHaynes]

I'm with EGOL...I don't pay any attention to keyword density.  I will be sure to have my keyword in the title.  And as I write, I will mention it as it comes out naturally, but I'm not paying any attention to how often I've mentioned the keyword.

[Syed1]

It is still important to some extent. If you intend to rank for "Chinese Burgers" but you are writing more about "Cheese" instead, Google will assume the page is more likely about "Cheese" than  "Chinese Burgers".  If you get some backlinks with the right variations of anchor text that includes "Chinese Burgers" in the phrase, that will solve Google's dilemma, but assuming no backlinks and no other external factors, keyword density is still pretty important.

I know this could be confusing (as I was not too long ago) as lot of 'experts' say its not important - just do your own little test with brand new domains and see what kind of difference it makes.

Its true however that there is no  magic "density" to this - just make sure you don't use some other keyword phrase more than your MEAT keyword phrase.

[MBayes]

In my limited experience it's about clarity, not density. EGOL  makes a good point, if your page is clear and well written about its subject, in general you should be alright.