Keyword density percentage/threshold for SEO?

Howdie all

I searched the forum and could not find much specifically for my question so I'm posting it here.
I was comparing my site to a competitor's at GoRank dot com and they have a tool for keyword density checking.
They break it down into fields: TITLE, ALT TEXT, DESCRIPTION, HEADINGS, ALL TEXT.
The ALL TEXT appears to be a "summary" score - any ideas if this is the baseline to use for SEO?

From reading the SEO forums, I've gleaned that having my keyword(s) repeated too many times is considered spamming
by the search engines. Can anyone advise if the "ALL TEXT" field is the one we should concentrate on for SEO and is
there a density threshold to be obtained (some say 3-5%, other 5-7%). Does the threshold vary per engine?

I have an ALL TEXT keyword density of 7% and my competitor has it at 15%. He's stomping me in rankings (he's #1,
I'm #183... but he has been online for 3+ years too - I've only been online a year).

Thanks

Mike

I think as long as you're at 3-7% density, you can compete with anyone...from that point it relys more on backlinks and anchor text than density.....just my opinion.

How much would it be the optimum density to be #1 in google ?

What do you say ?
I am a newbie .. sorry if it's a stupid question..