Keyword Density

[busy1]

Hi everyone,
I was just wondering if anyone knew what is considered the maximum amount for a specific keyword or phrase on a web page without spamming that is acceptable for google?
Thanks,
Lynn

[rlrouse]

Hi Lynn. If you ask that question of 50 people, you'll likely get 50 different answers. My answer is to use as many as will keep the text making sense. When your copy starts sounding unnatural, you have used the keywords too much.

For Google, my experience has demonstrated that more is better, and as close to the top of the HTML code as possible the better.

[busy1]

Thanks Rlrouse,
I ran a test at http://www.gorank.com and compared my website to the top 10 rankings for the word "gifts" and my density was 9.16%. My word repeat 38.

There is only one other with a 8.0, the others being much lower.
For instance I have 415 words. Snadragongiftsonlinestore.com has 25 words and a word repeat of 2 and shows a 8.0% density.

So I felt like I was way over, or maybe I am just confused on interrupting these stats.
Lynn

[rlrouse]

You'll be fine with 9%. Some of my clients have pages with around 30% keyword density and they consistently rank in the top 10 for their keywords. As long as the text sounds natural and not contrived, you're fine. If you have "lists" on your pages you can get away with even higher densities.