Keyword Research - Keyword Density Formula

An integral part of any search engine optimization (SEO) campaign is the researching and choosing of keywords for your website. This is basically the words or terms that you are trying to champion in the search engine. Do you sell PEZ dispensers? Then you may want to use “PEZ”, “dispensers”, “flavored candy” or the more popular items, like “star wars PEZ”.

Once you have these keywords chosen, you need to incorporate the keywords into your website’s content and tags so that it is considered relevant to the search engines when ranking your site. This includes all the copy throughout your website, as well as all the page titles, title tags and links. It’s not an easy process, but it is a necessary one for SEO.

When inserting your keywords throughout the on-page content, it is vital to understand the density at which keywords are optimized on a page. “Keyword density” is specifically referring to how often a keyword is used in your on-page copy. The search engines compute the keyword density percentage, and the more often they find a search term in your content, the more it will think that your page is relevant and should be ranked higher. However, there is a fine line between having an optimal keyword density and over-stuffing your content with keywords and terms.

Please Note: Just because you have the right amount of keyword density in your SEO campaign, doesn’t mean that you will automatically be ranked higher. Google’s new algorithm actually favors more related search terms than exclusively keyword density. Focus also on the quality of your content, rather than only focusing on your keyword density. If you do exceed the optimum keyword density, you can face an over-optimization penalty.

There is no “perfect” keyword density percentage in SEO, but Volacci strives to keep our density at or below 5 percent. The percentage of a page is relative to your content length, so it is recommended that you know the formula to calculate each page. The formula for keyword density is pretty simple.

1.) Count how many words you have on your page.
2.) Count how many times you have used your keyword
3.) Apply this formula:

Keyword Density = ([Keyword Count]*100)/(Total Word Count]
For example, let’s say that you have a 500 word article about PEZ dispensers, and you are optimizing for “PEZ”
Total Word Count: 500
PEZ keyword uses: 12
“PEZ” density = (12*100)/500
Keyword density for “PEZ” on the page is 2.4%

In SEO campaigns, having keyword optimization in your on-page content is very important to being relevant to the search engines. However, if you focus too much on keyword density, you can potentially lose focus on other important elements in the dynamic approach to optimizing your site. Use the keyword density formula to ensure that you are applying relevant uses of your keywords into quality content and links so that you are getting the most out of your research. If you abuse your keywords, the Google gods will get you, so don’t stuffers beware.