Website Review SEO: What is a Good Keyword Density for my Blog?

Optimize Your Blogging with Website Review SEO

You probably know how important it is to have a regularly updated blog with valuable content if you want to rank high with Google and other search engines. Search companies want to send their users to helpful, relevant websites. The more original content you can put on your blog, the more relevant your site will be in the eyes of Google.

However, you also need to catch the search engine’s attention. The way to do that is by using keywords throughout your content. You likely have a list of important keywords for your website. Implementing those keywords throughout your blog content will improve your chances of ranking higher on search engines.

That doesn’t mean that having more keywords is better, though. Google and other search engines have become very aware of the practice of “keyword stuffing,” which is what happens when you force a keyword into your content as many times as possible. They don’t want content that’s forcibly stuffed with keywords. They want content that is readable, helpful, and appealing.

Keyword Density: A critical metric for your blog

Given search engine sensitivity to keyword stuffing, it can sometimes be hard to know how many times a keyword should be used. Keyword density is a useful metric that can help you determine whether you have too many or too few keywords in your blog post.

The formula for keyword density is as follows:

# of appearances of keyword / Total number of words *100

For example, if you wrote a 500 word blog post and used your keyword five times, the post would have a keyword density of one percent. If you used the keyword 50 times, the post would have a density of 10 percent.

That leads to the obvious question: What is a good keyword density? You’ll find lots of opinions on this, but the consensus is that a density of anywhere between one and 2.5 percent is usually a good number.

Again, consider your normal 500 word post. If a 10 percent density is 50 uses of the keyword, it should be pretty clear that number is too high. Even a five percent density is 25 keyword appearances. Repeating the same word or phrase 25 times in a blog post would not sound natural and it wouldn’t be easy to read. That’s the kind of keyword stuffing that Google and other search engines want you to avoid.

How to get the right keyword density

There is a simple process of making sure that your blog posts have the right keyword density. First, write for your audience, not the search engines. Make your blog content useful and easy-to-read. Keep it on-topic and make sure the topic is relevant to your keyword. While you’re writing, don’t try and force the keyword into the text. If it fits, that’s great. If not, that’s okay too.

When you’re done writing the post, go back and see what your keyword density is. If it’s too low, see if there are a few places where you can naturally fit the keyword in. If you’re too high, try to take a few instances of the keyword out.

It also may be helpful to do a website review with SEO in mind. Go back through your old blog posts and see if they have the right density. If they’re too high, you may be getting penalized by search engines. Doing an SEO website review could improve your content and boost your rankings.