Question --> Readable content VS. SEO content. SEO Experts, Please read and reply.

Google dont like businesses to be told what they are not.
I am a chicago plumbing, that is a wrong phrase. Instead of that you can say I provide Chicago plumbing service.
I have worked allot in local businesses specially in Chicago.

Are you talking about the content for the website itself or content that you are distributing for backlinks?

For local SEO, generally the on page content doesn't matter. I have one local client right now that is #1 for 10 different keywords. None of those keywords show up anywhere in their content, title tag, or H1 tags. In fact, their front page probably has less than 250 words on it.

Now for content you are distributing and you are worried about the anchor text, try partial anchor text matches.

Instead of "Plumber Chicago", use "Plumber in Chicago", "Best Plumber in Chicago", "Plumber near Chicago", etc.

Might take a few more links, but it will work fine. Some people are doing some tests and believe that partial anchor text matches are working even better than exact anchor text matches.

"There are a number of things to look for in a plumber. Chicago has a number of establishments "

Will the punctuation affect things? Perhaps a little bit but I really doubt the on page SEo score moves very much based on that .

Plus a creative writer could put in easily.

"I recently was searching for a plumber. I live in Chicago and there are no end of people claiming to be plumbers who really are not certified. Search engines were of no help. After an hour searching for - plumber chicago - I gave up with only one good lead."

Trust me - there is no phrase you can't work into a good article

Plus as far as content goes I really think people overdo worrying about it. Write a good coverage of the subject and if there are some "in" "of" (plumbers in chicago". Plumbers of chicago" in the content you are still going to be able to rank it

You mentioned keyword density and I know there are people who swear by a fixed percentage but truth be told I find that if my article really is about the subject I rarely have to worry about it and if I read over it and there are not alot of references its a quick fix. I like my subject words to appear high in the the article but after that I have no set percentage rules.

When you see strange search terms like that, that doesn't mean that is what the search actually typed into Google itself.

There is a long extensive list of very common words that Google just doesn't bother to store in it's servers to save time and space. So when you go and do your research, that is why they come up like that.

So when writing your web content, just write it for the readers. In the end your keyword will present itself inside your content, and you will rank for it perfectly fine.

However, like other posters have mentioned, you don't need to have that keyword in your content to rank for it. As you will see tons and tons of websites out there are ranking for keywords that really aren't displayed on in their web content at all.

-- Jeff

Always write your pages for readers first, and Google second. Good quality will eventually lead to high rankings.