Keyword density

Keyword density is a hot topic within the search engine optimization industry. In this article, we will tell you what it means and what the right keyword density is.

What is keyword density?

Keyword density is a percentage that indicates how often the keyword can be found relative to the total number of words.

The importance of keyword density

Keyword density is crucial to writing quality content. On the one hand, the content that is on a website you write for the search engines. On the other hand (and right away the most important), you write for your visitors.

After all, visitors are the people who will eventually make a purchase from your company: search engines are not. When a text too often contains the keyword a company wants to be found on, it is considered spam. If Google marks this as spam, there are consequences such as a penalty. In addition to giving a penalty, another possibility is that Google may not show the page at all, if at all.

The impact of keyword density on SEO

Keywords are an important part of SEO. Yet keywords are less important than in the early years of SEO. Quality content takes precedence. Readability of texts is crucial in this regard. Therefore, it is important not to use the keyword too often in the content. A percentage is therefore useful to adhere to, even if it is to set the upper limit.

My advice

We recommend not going too hard on keyword density. Make the texts as natural as possible and include synonyms of the keyword you want to be found on. Semantic search allows Google to see more than just the keyword. Namely, the relationship between words and context.

Make sure the text is written for the visitor, not for Google. Still, to give you a percentage: we ourselves do not go over 3% when we write SEO texts. This is more than enough to let the search engines know what a page is and is not about.