Most people would say 3-5% (And I can agree with that being a safe number) but al ot of authorities on the subject say that its over rated. If I was you, I would test for myself =)

Don't worry about keyword density.

I aim for this:

• Keyword once in Page Title
• Keyword once in page URL
• Keyword once in <h1>
• keyword 1-2 times in text with keyword anchor-text on 1 of the in text keywords pointing at the page your trying to rank in Google SERPs.

I focus on about 2% keyword density and it works pretty fairly to my benefit. But then again, you shouldn't put to much thought into it. The algorithms change so much, that it's better if you just focus on providing quality content.

I agree to Yukon. Put your keywords in the right place for best results.

Now it looks like a LOT of the top ranking sites have a keyword density of about 2% to 5%.

I wouldn't recommend making major changes to your keyword density if your page is still ranking high. But, if your site is one of the many that got "shot-out-of-the-saddle" so to speak, I would recommend lowering your keyword density if it is over 5%.

And remember to count singular and plural versions as the SAME word now that Google has changed their search techniques.

My rule of thumb is:

--no less than 3%
--no more than 5%
--keyword mentioned once in opening paragraph
--keyword mentioned once in closing paragraph
--keyword bolded once
--keyword italicized once
--keyword linked once back to home page

I also agree with the tips from Yukon in this thread.

By the way, I notice you're ranked #16 in Google in a rather competitive niche.

You seem to know what you're doing already...

[DELETED]

2-3% no more than that and make sure you got the other on-page SEO right. (refer to Yukon above)

I normally stick to keyword-

- density around 2%
- In title
- in URL
- In first and last paragraph

As long as it is around that and you have a good backlinking strategy then you should be able to rank well for most keywords.

Simple...
Go to your top competitors, see what density they have and do one better! Works for me.

arnold55

But not to forget about some Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords. It is one specific algorithm that the search engines use to evaluate site content through related keywords.