Keyword Density: Frequently Asked Questions

How frequently should you use your keyword to rate highly for it in the search engines? How can you avoid penalties for keyword stuffing? Do the different search engines have different standards for the amount of times you can use your keyword on your site without invoking a penalty? Wayne Hurlbert tackles these and other questions in this article.


Read the full article here: Keyword Density: Frequently Asked Questions

For more discussion go here: Blog Article Discussion

Wayne... I'm very dissapointed in this article and dissapointed in whomever edits these stories for publication. We've discussed kw density so much here at SEOChat, it's shocking to me that it still pervades as a myth.

This is totally inaccurate. The only thing these search engines use kw density for is to tag pages for spam.

Again, this is complete nonsense. I don't mean to be rude, but some fact checking is in order before writing an article like this.

Once again - kw density is NOT used in ranking algorithms. Search engines have, for a long, long time, used a far better formula - term weight or tf*idf - a measure of the term's frequency as compared to the inverse document frequency.

Here are the threads/articles on the subject:

http://forums.seochat.com/t28007/s.html
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=4961
http://www.e-marketing-news.co.uk/Mar05/garcia.html
http://forums.seochat.com/t22356/s.html

It would be terrific to see this article cleaned up to present more accurate data. I'm happy to help however I can.

Please don't take any offense Wayne, this is just a sore subject for me.

Hi Rand.

The article has some problems, as FAQ type articles often do.

The format precludes indepth analysis, and what I was discussing was more about keyword stuffing than about keywords on page. Even then, I fully understand your point.

Obviously, I wasn't able to convey that very well at all.

It is interesting, however, how much keyword density gets discussed, and how many tools there are that measure it.

Thanks for the honesty.

Wayne -

I'm glad my candor wasn't too off-putting. I think you're a guy who knows his stuff, but this article and the continued persistence of the myth of keyword density is hurting the SEO business.

Today, I noticed that Dr. Garcia updated his paper explaining why keyword density cannot work as a method for detecting the importance of a term or phrase on a page - it may be of interest to you:

http://www.miislita.com/fractals/keyword-density-optimization.html

5 live links.

tsk tsk,, you should be ashamed of yourself,, breaking the forums rules.
You should know better randfish

I think our policy on links isn't "no live links". I'm pretty sure you can refer to a link as long as it's for reference and not self promotion... I'll double-check though.

ADDED: Mick, you're right - my mistake. "Live links in posts are generally not permitted" - as per SEOChat forum rules.

Wayne - Any chance you'll be editing the article? It would be great to see.

Rand is on a mission. Lucky he stopped at 5 not at 10 ;-) JK. Seriously though, good points Rand.

None of us work for the search engines, so we CANNOT say with 100% accuratcy if KW density is used in ranking a page or not. Please remember that when saying something is "totaly" inaccurate.

It just bugs me when people speak as if they have a working knowledge of the ranking algorithums of the search engines. Unless you do, you cannot say its a totality.

SanDiego - In general I agree with this point, but on the subject of kw density, you can talk to many people in Information Retrieval and have them explain, quite well, why keyword density is such a poor metric and why search engines would never use it in ranking a site. If you have knowledge that the search engines can use more sophisticated methods, there's no harm, in my opinion, in stating it as fact.

For example, none of us would say 'anchor text' is useless or doesn't help and in fact we say with absolute certainty that it does help and is valid. This is the same thing - keyword density is occassionally used by search engines to identify spam, but never, ever, ever (with 100% accuracy) used in the ranking algorithm when attempting to identify the strength of a particular term on a page. See the link in my signature for more.

"keyword density is such a poor metric and why search engines would never use it in ranking a site."

It doesn't matter wiether theres a poor metric or not. Unless those that know the underlying workings of the algorithum, its is still speculation and opinons.

"keyword density is occassionally used by search engines to identify spam, but never, ever, ever (with 100% accuracy) used in the ranking algorithm"

Where is your 100% accurate proof? It is still your opinon that this is the case. You may think you know it to be an absolute, but again, unless someone who has working knowledge of ALL ranking algorithms, it can not be a proven fact that it KD plays 0% in determining ranking in one way or another (even if its a very small part of ranking.)

Very well, let me simply say this then:

How strong is the argument against kw density - as strong as any argument can be made about any system which one has not personally designed and operated. I say it with the same certainty that I say the Earth is round - why?

- The explanation makes sense
- It fits all the facts
- Those with direct experience have concurred that this (tf*idf) is the methodology to use
- These same persons have published it in dozens of papers and patents
- It would make no sense to use a mathematically provable inferior rankings system when implementation of term weight and its variants provides such better results

I hope you'll come around on this issue

How about writing a tool for us to use Randfish?

G-Man

Randfish,
You should come up with a KWD tool that performs the following:
1) No matter what page is submitted to your tool you will have an automated response that says; Congratulations! Key word density of this page is perfect!

D

LOL great idea!

G-Man