What is Keyword Density?
Keyword density is the percentage of times a target keyword or phrase appears on a web page relative to the total number of words. It's calculated as: (Number of keyword occurrences / Total word count) x 100. While once a critical SEO metric, modern search engines use much more sophisticated content analysis.
Is Keyword Density Still Important?
- Modern search engines use semantic analysis rather than exact keyword matching
- There is no ideal keyword density percentage - focus on natural writing
- Keyword stuffing (overusing keywords) can result in penalties
- Related terms and synonyms are equally important for ranking
Best Practices
Write naturally for your audience first. Use your target keyword in the title, H1, meta description, and a few times in the body content. Focus on topic coverage and user intent rather than hitting a specific density number.