SEO Recap – Keyword Density vs. Readability

An ideal keyword density for a single keyword is 1-2% – in other words, a keyword used once or twice for every 100 words of text. When using longer keyword phrases, extend the parameters a little. When a higher keyword density os required, using a primary keyword phrase and two to four secondary keywords or phrases is ideal. This can bring your keyword density up to 5-10% – which, if you have a REALLY GOOD copywriter, is still coherent and readable.

Keep in mind that keyword analyzer tools attempt to calculate the keyword density in the way search engines do… in other words, they do not take into consideration most words that are three characters or less and also omit what are called stop words. Frequently used words such as ‘a’, ‘and’, ‘the’, ‘at’, ‘but’, etc., are considered as stop words. Each search engines will have a standard list of stop words, which they omit while indexing the web pages, so take this into account when formulating keyword phrases and when creating content – there is no need for stilted copy trying to have the words appear exactly as a searcher would type them leaving out stop words in your content!

Some webmasters calculate keyword density by removing all stop words and words less than 3 characters long from their main text, then calculating density based on the remainder – which could mean you have 15 keywords in a remaining text of only 250 words, which is very high %. Most, however, use the simpler method of simply going by the number of times a keyword is used per hundred words. Therefore some webmasters 20% density might only be a 2-3% density according to another.

To maintain an ideal keyword density and still have a natural flow to the text is the main goal here. The readability of your content should not be obstructed. You need to create a professional looking website, which means even your content should be professionally developed. Many webmasters are tempted or told by ‘gurus’ that they can compromise on the quality of website’s content and that the right keyword density is more important than quality.

However,  if you succeed in getting listed in the top 10 positions in Google, then visitors land your webpage and see shoddy content and website design, they will leave, and your ranking achieves nothing. Your entire site should be compelling enough for them to trust your services and products. If you have a landing page that reads poorly then you cannot expect conversions. When it comes to SEO, you should always have the bigger picture in mind. This is where you find the difference between a professional SEO and an amateur. A pro will work with other professionals, including copywriters, to create the best site possible.

Even the main search engines themselves suggest webmasters should create websites for the users and not for the search engines alone! Search engine optimization is just an aid to make a website visible online. Even if you do not succeed in attracting organic traffic, there are number of other ways of driving traffic to your website. On the other hand, you would like to get free traffic, and SEO is a way to do that. Finding the balance between SEO and ‘UO‘ (user optimization) is a tricky line, but it is safer to fall on the side of user friendliness as you can always do more SEO later. Bottom line – when visitors come from any source, they should be able to find a professional website that they can use for their needs. Otherwise, all your efforts will be futile.

Hiring experienced SEO copywriters will allow you to create that fine blend of keyword density and quality content for your website. The cost is well worth it!