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Keyword Density

by ryanbiddulph
13 replies
I see different numbers tossed around when it comes to keyword density.

The rule of thumb seems to be 3-4 keywords per 400 word article. Place the keyword in the first sentence, last sentence and 1 spot or so in the middle.

In addition it seems that 400 word articles seem to be the optimum length for article marketing. I can churn 4-5 out between 60 and 90 minutes.

What's your take on keyword density?

Ryan Biddulph
#density #keyword
  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
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    • Profile picture of the author PatriciaJ
      I try to limit myself to about 1% and use related terms. My articles are usually over 500 words. Apart from having too much to say and some directories having 500 words as the lowest they will accept, I was advised that longer articles are more likely to be republished in ezines.
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  • Profile picture of the author MeghanK
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    • Profile picture of the author bretski
      Originally Posted by MeghanK View Post

      I like to determine the article length based on my target audience.

      Here is an extreme example: If I am writing an article for a target audience of people who have a low attention span, 500 words could make them click their browser back button before reading a word.
      That's FUNNY! How about people with OCD? One paragraph copied and pasted 10 times?
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
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        • Profile picture of the author Matt Bard
          Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

          ... and I'd always wondered what they mean by "duplicate content penalty".
          That's the "duplicate ritual penalty"
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  • Profile picture of the author theemperor
    I have no idea what google wants to see, but I usually stick to 1 per 100 words as per where I first learned about keyword research (SBI)
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    • Profile picture of the author bretski
      I don't really count although I did have an article kicked back last night when I tried to submit it to EZA that said that it was over 2% keyword density.

      One thing that had me thinking last night after posting to another threads was that if you have a longer article you have the opportunity mathematically to have a keyword in an article more often. A 400 word article with 2% keyword density can only have a keyword in that article 8 times. A 600 word article can have the keyword in there 12 times....just some food for thought. Although there is little sense in writing long articles just so you can stuff keywords in there. It will come off feeling like you are keyword stuffing or you wind up repeating yourself too often....just doesn't read right or natural.

      The article that I mentioned was a review so it was difficult not to have the keyword in there that many times. I wasn't really trying to keyword stuff...
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  • Profile picture of the author jasonTBA
    Hate to sound pedantic but it completely depends on what you want the article to do. People say that when looking for click throughs the smaller the article the better as there is less chance of the user clicking away before they get to your link. However if you are looking for people to republish your article then the length is unimportant (within reason) it is simply the quality that matters.

    Also I dont think keyword density matters that much to be honest just get your keywords in there without overdoing it and make sure you are not just putting your keywords in there for the sake of it

    My 2c
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  • Profile picture of the author Matt Bard
    As Alexa and bretski have said, EA does not want more than 2% so I started writing everything to fit that 2% standard.

    I started testing this on anything I wrote, blog posts, guest posts, opt-in pages...with good results when it comes to having my content listed on Google.

    Have read several SEO opinions on this, but I am convinced that 2% is the "magic number" for me
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  • Profile picture of the author ELVISTHEPELVIS
    I was always told about using 2% density but I'm not so sure how much that matters. I just make sure that it is in my title and in the summary and body of the article a couple of times.
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  • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
    Originally Posted by ryanbiddulph View Post

    What's your take on keyword density?
    Just write a good article. The keyword density and the LSI and all that will take care of itself.

    These systems people use to target search terms are backwards. The search engines are already trying very hard to match those search terms to your article, and they're assuming your goal was to write a good article.

    If you write a good article, Google and Bing will find it and show it to people. If you write something with all kinds of rank-enhancing tricks, they'll find it and show it to people, but nobody will like it. And both of them care more about whether people like it than they do about any algorithm to match search terms.
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  • Profile picture of the author John Durham
    I wonder if we could intentionally push warrior threads to the top of google if everyones comments stayed relevent and had high keyword density...

    We ought to experiment with a thread and see what happens...huh?
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