Now that we have clouded the issue of keyword density..

[paulgl]

Now that another thread has clouded the issue of keyword density,
can someone clear it up?

If a keyword is only in every 250-300 words, how can it be
considered a keyword? because it's in the title? Because
it's in a meta tag? Would there not be other 'words'
maybe even 'key' words that you are ignoring that would
have more density? Isn't the name of the game content?
If I have an article of say 750 words, and my keyword
is mentioned only 3 times, how good is that? I
probably repeated other key terms more! And so I am
penalized for words I am not even caring about?

Am I correct in assuming that if I mention my keyword
4 times in 750 words, and a competitor mentions my
keyword that he is not even targeting just 3 times in the
same 750 words, he gets the benefit, not me?

Maybe someone can point me in the right direction
as to what is right and maybe where to find more
information! Cuz I am going nuts at the moment.

Paul

[homenotion]

Hi Paul,

I wouldn't suggest you get too hung up with keyword density. It's becoming more and more of a non-issue with the search engines. Here's an article that I wrote that might explain it a bit better:
Forget About SEO Copywriting

The point is that you should focus more on writing clear, concise, compelling copy. By doing that you will naturally write keyword-dense copy”. In other words it's ok to put your keyphrase in your title, description, page title and perhaps once in your copy but devote the rest of your writing to relevant, "on topic", clear and unique writing.

It's not just about getting the search engines to notice you, today it's much more important to appeal to your reader because they are the ones that will link to you and reference you. The more votes you get from your human readers the more the search engines will appreciate you.

Hope that makes sense :-)
Elizabeth