Keyword Density in Articles Question
Rick writes in and asks:
How should I calculate keyword density for my articles and what should it be, ideally? I’ve looked all over your site and can’t find any recommendation. It’s important, right?
Rick, is it important? Short answer = No. If anything, it’s been abused and we reject content that is over-keyword or key phrase optimized because it’s too *gamey* of a practice or of no obvious value to the reader.
In the EzinePublisher view of every article (you’ll find this in the upper right article tools section of each article), we have been providing Statistically Improbable Words and Statistically Improbable Phrases, but I’m not convinced that this information provides any value to anyone.
Some of the dumb things we’ve seen members do when they get the “keyword density is a secret bug”:
They will send in a 500 word article with the same keyword or keyphrase repeated 21 times or worse, they will BOLD only the keyword or keyphrase. It sticks out like a bad date.
They will start every sentence with the keyword or keyphrase they are gunning for.
They will insert keywords or keyphrases in non-grammatically correct ways. Example: You can save money mybrand loans is the way.
Keyword Density Conclusion:
Being keyword dense or keyphrase dense is dumb and it destroys your credibility with the reader and with us. There is nothing wrong with being ‘keyword density’ aware, but don’t build your articles around any keyword density metric… instead, build your articles around providing the most useful value for your ideal reader.
I wholeheartedly agree with this post. I’ve seen articles that are so dense in keywords it’s impossible to get any message out of the article other than the keyword. And isolated keywords in themselves hardly provide any relevency. In my earlier days, I would occasionally write dense articles, but I couldn’t stand to read them afterwards. And I know that if I can’t read it, no one else will want to, either.
Whether it helps my search engine rankings is irrelevent to me; if I’m just sending spam out online, then the business will suffer in terms of credibility and relevency.
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