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What you need is balance. (Photo: Hans Splinter/Flickr/CC BY-ND)

Keyword density is the percentage of how many times your keyword appears in the text of your web-page compared to the total word count on the page. It plays a very important role in an article because keywords, how and where they are used, decide the quality of the article and its rank in search engine search results.

An unethical practice of keyword use

A vast number of SEO copywriters believe that including their targeted keyword or keyword-phrase a ridiculous number of times will help them gain a better position on the Web. The truth, however, is that this type of method can seriously work against you. Google, for instance, has a keyword density requirement, and if you want to appear on the first page of its search results for your target keyword(s), abiding by its conditions will make a huge difference in how well you will rank.

Avoid keyword stuffing

Some SEO copywriters may be tempted to use the same keyword or phrase over and over — and over and over again – in an attempt to rank number one for their targeted keywords. This method is known as “keyword stuffing,” where the writer overloads the content, including the Meta tags of the web page, with every possible keyword or phrase related to the site in multiple ways. Clearly the keyword density in this practice is far from balanced. The content you produce will most likely be classified as spam, not just by readers, but by all of the search engine algorithms, as well. When the search engine crawler arrives to examine your site, its algorithm can quickly determine whether a keyword or phrase is being used an unreasonable number of times, hence the term “keyword stuffing.” This could result in a severe drop in rankings or, even worse, a complete removal of your site from the search engine index.

How much is too much?

In my opinion, if you write an article that is 300 to 400 words long, the main keyword or phrase should appear no more than six to eight times. Try not to repeat the same keyword in the same paragraph or in every other sentence. Google in particular allows no more than two percent of a web page’s words to contain keywords. So if the article is 500 words long, you can include the keyword no more than 10 times. The allowed keyword density percentage varies with different search engines. Yahoo and MSN, for example, may allow up to five percent. And just to be safe, here’s one of my favorite online tools that will help you determine the keyword density of your web page:

Remember, stay away from the shady practice of stuffing your web pages filled with keywords. Be real and allow things to flow smoothly. Always try to come across as a real person trying to communicate with real people, not bots.