Yes Virginia … Keyword Density is still important

Did I really just say that? Yeesh. Please put away the pitchforks and let me explain.

Every search result is it’s own marketplace with it’s own rules and regulations, Some are more likely to have maps listings while others are more inclined to show recent news articles due to the recency of the topic. Some SERPs are going to contain results that have tons of spammy links and the top players are engaging in risky tactics (as outlined by the engines) but not being penalized, while other SERPs will contain sites that are totally white hat. When optimizing your desired page for a particular search result, I’ve always found it useful to look at the how the other sites in the top 10 use the keyword throughout the site, aka (gasp!) keyword ensity. The things I look for are:

  • Do they use the word in the title tag?
  • If so, is it in the beginning of the title tag? Do they use modifiers?
  • What on-page elements contain the keyword? H1, H2
  • How often is it used in the text of the page?
  • Do they use the term in their navigation?
  • What links do they have containing this term in the anchor texts? More importantly, can I get a link here as well.

This is failry easy to eyeball, but it’s a worthwhile exercise to undertake to figure out what you’re up against. If the sites listed within the top 10 have the keyword at the front of the title tag and are pretty aggressive with placement on the page, you will probably want to utilize similar tactics initially. As you continue to build your link profile and creep up into the top 10, top 5, etc, you can probably ease up on the keyword usage if you feel you were overly aggressive and the content could be improved by using other words, but if you’re just starting off it’s good to be in the same ballpark as your competitors.

For any given search result, if you know how often the top rankings sites are using the keyword, and you can identify the top links with the keyword as the anchor text, you’ve got a pretty good start on what it may take to rank well enough to start receiving traffic from the term.

Here are my two favorite Keyword Density checkers I use.

I’m still looking for a tool that can take the top 10 for a given search result, or allows you to manually enter in multiple URL’s for comparison sake. If anybody knows of a tool that does this please let me know.

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