Keyword density

What is keyword density?

Keyword density, also known as search term density, is a key figure in search engine optimization. It refers to the ratio of a search term to the total number of words on your website. Keyword density is usually expressed as a percentage.

Your keyword density is calculated as follows:

Keyword density= (Number of your keywords ÷ Total number of words in the text) * 100

Example:

If the keyword appears a total of six times in a text with a total length of 500 words, your keyword density is 1.2%.

How do you find the optimal keyword density for a good ranking?

Your keyword density is a relevant ranking factor for search engines and an important part of your search engine optimization. However, there is no specific guideline for what percentage the keyword density should be. Several factors play a role in finding the right keyword density:

• Text length
• Topic of your text
• Comparable websites with similar or identical topics
• Use of synonyms that fit the keyword thematically
• Placement of your keywords (beginning of text, middle section, end of page)

Keyword density is one of several factors that Google uses to calculate the relevance of your website. In addition to the question of how often a relevant word appears in your texts, other factors such as responsive design, your PageSpeed, the usability of your site, and your internal links and backlinks also play an important role.

When is your keyword density too high?

When writing your texts, you should make sure that your keyword density does not become too high. Search engines can interpret this as keyword spamming or keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing involves filling both the metadata and the source code of the website with one or more keywords. This increases the keyword density. In most cases, the texts are barely readable for the user. This leads to an increased bounce rate, as there is often no useful information behind the content. This practice is now strictly punished by Google. The reason: too high a keyword density makes your text seem unnatural, which the Googlebot can recognize. This can cause your website to lose ranking.

So write your text, taking your keywords into account, as naturally as possible. Write your content for the human visitors and readers of your site, not for the search engine, and incorporate your keywords organically.

Should you do a WDF*IDF for on-page optimization, or is an analysis sufficient?

As an alternative to determining keyword density using the calculation above, there is the WDF*IDF analysis. This evaluation shows you which keywords are still missing in your content but occur very frequently in other online documents and on websites of competitors. This allows you to easily add to your keyword list. The analysis also shows you key terms that frequently appear in connection with your main keyword. You can use WDF*IDF tools to ensure that all keywords appear in the text and are sufficiently covered. Unlike the simple method of calculating keyword density, WDF*IDF analysis is time-consuming. However, both types of analysis are useful and advisable. Calculating keyword density gives you a good initial overview. If you have other keywords in your text besides the main keyword that need to be optimized, WDF*IDF analysis is definitely worthwhile for you.

Tools to help you achieve the right keyword density

• seitenrepord.de: This site offers a helpful tool that you can use to check published websites. All you have to do is enter the relevant URL and keyword. You will then receive an analysis showing which words appear too frequently or too infrequently in your texts.

• Seo-Semantix: With this tool, you can define up to four words and have their frequency and usage in your text analyzed. Seo-Semantix even calculates existing optimization potential and gives you tips on how you can improve your content.

• Gillmeister Software: This is also a text analysis tool where you enter your content and then receive an evaluation in descending order. You will also see the ratio of your individual keywords to each other.

• textanalyse-tool.de: Here you can find help if you want to find out how your keyword relates to the rest of your content.