Keyword density, how much is more than enough?

[Dervish]

Greetings
I have optimized my page for 1 keyword for Yahoo
Its density is 2.9% now
Can i lose rankings on Google due to such high density or even be banned???!!

[braknews]

I thought the rule of thumb for Google was between 4-5% without being considered keyword stuffing.

Alas Yahoo does not have the same rule & the No. 1 site for my keywords has stuffed their page. :-(

[bhartzer]

In my opinion, the best keyword density percentage is determined by the SERPs themselves. Do a search for the keyword phrase you're targeting. Then analyze the keyword densities of the pages that appear in the top of those results. You will want your keyword density a little bit higher than the pages that appear in the top of the results.

Every keyword phrase is different. One might do well with a 3.2 percent keyword density and another whereas the average density for another keyword phrase is close to about 6 percent. And if you were to use the 6 percent keyword density on your page to try to rank for the 3.2, then you'd be way too high, on the border of spamming.

[rlrouse]

There is no "best" keyword density. I have pages with a keyword density of around 3% that rank in the top 10.

I have other pages that have a keyword density of over 50% and rank in the top 10. And these are for some pretty competive terms.

It all depends on the page and what's on it. If the search engine robots can't tell what the page is about, the keyword density is too low.

If your page copy reads like it's unnatural or contrived, the keyword density is probably too high.

My recommendation is to use as high a keyword density as possible and still have the content sound normal when you read it.

[Dervish]

Ok, thanks for help
"If your page copy reads like it's unnatural or contrived, the keyword density is probably too high."
great advice as for me, but English is not my native language, so i can not be sure how it sounds to english native speakers :(, but i am trying, yep!

[rlrouse]

Certainly understandable. If you're in doubt you can always ask for a site review in the proper forum.

[DriWashSolutions]

I recently took a look into KW density on my site, as well as the G ranking for each of the individual KW's and the KW phrase. Here's my findings:

KW1 (a three letter word) Ranks #12 on G
KW2 (a four letter word) does not rank in the top 1000.
KW1 + KW2 (a two word phrase) Ranks #95

Now, I looked at the KW densities for each of the two words. KW1=9.1%, KW2= 13.5%

Other high ranking sites show KW density of right around 10%. Is the G limit 10% and anything greater than that considered spamming?

Also, do the individual KW rankings affect the KW phrase? They certainly seem to in my testing.