Meaning of keyword density

[Manpasand]

What is the meaning of keyword density? How we can measure? Keyword Density have any standards for Google and Yahoo?

[flood6]

Keyword density is a measure of how many times you use a specific word (the keyword or phrase) compared to how many total words are on the page.

There is a tool to measure keyword density here.

It appears that google places very little weight on keyword density. Though there is an opinion that if your density is too high for a given word or phrase that you will get penalized.

Yahoo may place somewhat more weight to keyword density in their algo. Who knows?

[Manpasand]

Thanks,
But how much standard keyword density should be in one page? in another word what is the standard keyword density for Google?

[flood6]

Nobody knows for sure, if they tell you they do they are wrong or lying. That said the going opinions range. Most say that an optimized page will have between 5 and 15% density.

[AussieWebmaster]

It also varies according to engine... Google people say keep it under 20%...

In some cases the value goes against you after you hit their optimum number.

[adore]

I've read somewhere that Google may calculate the best density range for each keyword independently in order to filter out those pages where density is to high in comparison with their competitors.
It could be some kind of relative density value dependant of the specifics of keywords.
Sounds reasonable for me.

[AussieWebmaster]

Originally Posted by adore

I've read somewhere that Google may calculate the best density range for each keyword independently in order to filter out those pages where density is to high in comparison with their competitors.
It could be some kind of relative density value dependant of the specifics of keywords.
Sounds reasonable for me.

Though that may be a good flag for spamming I would not think it raises the flag unless it is over a certain percentage.

[Manpasand]

hmm...

[crashingflwrgrl]

I agree with 5% to 15%, but don't target too many keywords or phrases per page.

[jestep]

From the best I can tell, google seems to like a lower 4-5% while yahoo is safe for up to 15%. Anything above 6% in google and I see my site start to fall in the SERPS.

[Mel]

hmmm... in the original google design papers, the effect of excessive keyword density was mitigated by applying a successively lower weight to each occurance of a word, thus eliminating the need to find a "sweet spot" with regards to keyword density.

It could be that Google have redesigned thier keyword weighting scheme, but looking at the great variety of densities of highranking pages I don't think so.