It seems that the percent of suggested keywords for a body of text is always changing. Is it 5%, 6%, 7%...?
Too many keywords makes your text look contrived and the search engines may think you are just keyword dumping if your use too many. So what is the ideal keyword usage percent?
To help writers manage their keyword content I use a metaphor. Once your keyword research is done you should have one or two main phrases that support your main topic, a few related terms and maybe some more outlying related terms. These keyword groups will form your keyword tree.
In the keyword tree the main keyword phrases form the trunk or base of the tree and comprise about 3-4% of the text. The related terms form the branches or less than 1% of the total text and your outlying related terms form the leaves and are likely only used once. The reason I keep the main phrases at less than 3 or 4% is because the tags, descriptions and other text on the page may push it up a bit and you do not want to be over 5%, so 3% should keep you in a safe range.
In the research I have done I have discovered that keyword saturation is not necessary. I have seen many high ranking pages that stay under 3%. You should check your competitors pages and try to be comparable to them and maybe beat them on some phrases they missed.
There are many keyword analysis tools that can take the guess work out of keyword density.
Here are a few for pages that are already launched and are checked by URL:
Webmaster Toolkit
VIP Search Engine Marketing
SEO Tools - Keyword Density
I use SEO Tools, but most of them work about the same and many will allow you to compare two URLs. This can be used to compare your page to your competitors.
If you are still in the process of writing your text you can use proof reading software like Editor, which also checks grammar and usage. Or you can paste your text into an online analyzer like Textalyser.
Author: Pamela S. Stevens, SEO Jive
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