Determining the right amount of keyword density for your website content can be overwhelming. There are so many conflicting theories and tips out there, who can keep track? And do you really want to sacrifice readability and quality for a few extra hits from Google?
There’s a lot more to SEO than simply filling your website with keywords. However, if you want to make sure that your site is as search engine friendly as possible, it’s important to do a keyword density check from time to time. Luckily, there’s a simple trick that makes this process easy and fast – so you can focus on the important things, like conversions, traffic and engagement!
1. The basics of keyword density and how to use it for your SEO
Determine the keywords you want to target – First!
Once you’ve determined a few keyword opportunities based on your topic area and audience, it’s time to do a keyword density check. While this isn’t an exact science, you can get a general idea of how well optimized your website is by looking at the average word count per page. If you’re keeping track of this information, all you need to do is go back and pull it for each page on your site. If not, don’t worry – we’ll show you another way!
While various keyword density checkers and calculators are available online, most simply give you a basic score of 0% to 100%. They can help you get started, but it’s so easy to do this yourself in the spreadsheet software of your choice that we recommend that method! Here’s how:
CRTL + F on your keyboard and paste your keyword into the Find field. You’ll then see a number “#/#” the second number is the total number of times that keyword has been mentioned on that page. Once you’ve determined the average word count for each page, simply divide the total by the number of keywords and multiply by 100.
Use a slightly different number if you want to target long-tail keywords
If you’d like to add more keywords on your website, simply use this formula again with an adjusted keyword count – the higher the word count, the more times a specific word needs to appear in order for it to get a passing score.
2. Why you should always do a keyword density check
This is probably the most important step of all – and it’s also what you should use as the basis for your content marketing strategy! If you’re targeting longer or more difficult keywords, then your score might not be good on first blush. Don’t panic just yet – remember that we’re looking at these numbers in their entirety and trying to get an idea of the big picture. If you’re consistently over 20%, you’re doing well, but if not, there’s work to be done!
Nobody is perfect – what to do if your score isn’t good enough!
The best way to describe what you can do is to break it down into four categories: Delete, Replace, Insert and Leave.
Delete: If your keyword density is too high and it makes the readability of your article suffer, simply remove that word from each page until you get a better score. However, if you’re using related words or synonyms in your content, this isn’t necessary – just be sure to re-check the density of those words as well.
Replace: You want to use each keyword at least three times throughout your content, but there’s no real magic number that you need to follow – although according to best practices it is generally considered “safe” to stay between 3-7%. Use more if you can naturally do so; fewer if the context makes it difficult to use more!
Insert: Suppose you’re targeting keywords that are too long for this checklist. Don’t worry – just break up the keyword into smaller, more manageable chunks and check each one individually. You can then combine them all together into a single score (and do your research on the top search results as well)!
Leave: There are some instances where you just shouldn’t use a certain keyword – or any at all. For example, if your chosen keyword is too general and competitive (such as “dog training” or “pizza delivery”) then it’s time to move on and pick something else.
3. How to make sure your content is engaging and converts readers
Writing about your topic in an engaging and interesting way is the best way to get readers involved – but it can be difficult, especially if you’re not a natural writer. While some topics lend themselves to more creative content than others, there are many ways you can engage readers on even the most boring of sites!
For example: Keep your content organized and concise – don’t go past 3 to 4 paragraphs unless you have a really good reason not to. Offer statistics or facts in order to give readers the information they crave. Provide value – if your article isn’t giving something unique away for free, it’s probably not worth sharing! Be sure to add links throughout your content that direct readers back to your site (and use keywords wherever possible).
A Keyword density check is important to make sure every post, page of the website is unique with good readability for search engines. You can do a keyword density check also for individual keywords or phrases to make sure they are at least three times in the article with a high word count. If the score isn’t good enough, follow four steps Delete, Replace, Insert and Leave to improve reader engagement and conversions rate.
Keyword density is an important part of your SEO, but it’s not the only thing you need to worry about. Make sure you are also checking for grammar mistakes, deleting unnecessary words, and replacing them with synonyms.
And finally, make sure your content is engaging and converts readers into customers. If you can do all of that, you’ll be on your way to ranking higher in search engines and increasing your website traffic. Have you tried using keyword density in your own SEO strategy?
