Is Keyword Density Really Nonsense?

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

If you want a really good read, try The Keyword Density of Non-Sense by by DR. E. Garcia. Warning: Be sure to brush up on your college higher math – geometry, calculus, or whatever it is. Nevertheless, it’s a very interesting (and enlightening) read.

Of course, we all know that too many search engine optimization and SEM consultants today, in 2009, still refer to keyword density, speaking of it as if it is the latest information direct from the search engines. Newsflash: It isn’t.

Keyword density at one time made sense. I’m guessing that was around 1975…or 2005. But today keyword density is nothing short of hogwash. Actually, hogwash might even make more sense.

Boiled down to the basics, keyword density is the art and science of counting keywords and dividing them by the number of actual words on your web page and coming up with a percentage of word count that tells you how well you’ve optimized your web page. Except that there is no real art or science to this. Just try it and see how well you rank for your web pages.

The reason keyword density doesn’t make sense for search engine optimizers today is because the search engines all base their indexes and rankings on weighted factors as noted by Dr. Garcia. Those weighted factors vary from page to page and scenario to scenario. What is valued highly on one page may very well be differently valued on another page because of the way the two webmasters chose to present their pages. This makes it difficult to rely on any one method for optimization practices. In short, it makes the field of search engine optimization somewhat of a guessing game.

The guessing, however, is taken out of the equation to a certain degree when SEOs understand that the search engines do look for certain factors across the board. How those factors are weighted, on the other hand, is the variable component. A webmaster need not employ every factor that the search engines consider weighty. But they should figure out which ones are most important for their efforts and present those elements in a fashion that will give them somewhat of a fighting chance in the SERPs. That’s how the game of SEO is played. Isn’t that somewhat like the game of golf?