SEO Copywriting: How To Calculate Keyword Density
Posted on 16. Dec, 2008 by Christine OKelly in SEO Copywriting
There are a lot of tools for calculating keyword density – AFTER the content is already on the page. But as SEO copywriters, our job is to write content that is optimized BEFORE it goes live on the page.
Calculating keyword density while your content is still in the draft phase is useful not only for SEO copywriters, but for anyone writing content for their own website that wants to flesh out their content first rather than making changes once the content is already live.
You could count keywords by hand – but that’s time consuming and opens the door for error. I’ll show you how to calculate keyword density in your blog posts, web content, and articles using a method that is fast and simple.
Measuring Keyword Density
The best way to measure keyword distribution is through keyword density analysis. Keyword density observes occurrences of your particular keyword and the total word count of your text. From this, a figure representing keywords per 100 words of text is created. This is the figure known in SEO copywriting as the keyword density: it is represented as a percentage, such as 1.0%, or 1 keyword per 100 other words. When I write an article for distribution for a service, I usually look for a density between 1.0% and 1.3%. When I write web content, I try to get my density between 2.0% and 3.0%.
Easy Keyword Density Calculation: Live Keyword Analysis
Of course, if writers had to figure out keyword density by hand, we would have much less time to focus on our work. Luckily, there is an internet service called Live Keyword Analysis that actually measures your keyword density in real time. Simply enter the keywords you’re looking to optimize for and then start typing in the text box. As you write, it will measure and update the density it lists.
Although Live Keyword Analysis is an excellent SEO copywriting tool, unless you know a few tricks your density calculation can be inaccurate. There are different things to consider for each type of keyword calculation.
Calculating Singular Keywords in Live Keyword Analysis
In SEO copywriting, it can be very tempting to pluralize keywords for easier text integrating. But even the simple act of adding an “s” to the end of a word can dramatically change the search results. Not convinced? Try searching for “real estate agent” and then again for “real estate agents”. See the difference?
When you use Live Keyword Analysis, you have to manually account for that difference. The program doesn’t recognize that the plural word is different from the singular – it just sees the singular word inside the plural word. For instance, if “real estate agent” appears in your text 10 times and “real estate agents” appears 13 times, Live Keyword Analysis will recognize 23 instances of “real estate agent” and calculate the density accordingly.
To correct for this, simply measure the density of both and then subtract singular percentage from plural:
3.2 (singular)
- 0.9 (plural)
——–
2.3 (actual singular density)
Analyzing Two Letter Keywords in Live Keyword Analysis
There are a few more corrections required when your SEO copywriting requires you to include keywords that are only two letters long. Live Keyword Analysis is programmed to completely ignore all keywords with fewer than two letters, which is helpful unless your keyword phrase includes a word with only two letters.
If, for instance, you are working with the keyword phrase “homes in California”, Live Keyword Analysis will give you a reading of 0%, no matter how many times you include the keyword. The two letter “in” will cancel it out every time. With this example, you can get around the problem easily: just remove the “in”. Have Live Keyword Analysis calculate the density of “homes California”, and it will produce a result that is accurate for “homes in California”.
This technique works when the two letter keyword is in the middle of your SEO copywriting phrase. But what happens when it is at the end? Consider the keyword phrase “San Diego CA homes”. When you put it in as is, Live Keyword Analysis gives a density of 0%. But if you remove “CA”, it will calculate for all occurrences of “California” and throw off your results.
To get around this, you have to be a little creative. Put your entire text into a Microsoft Word document and use the find and replace feature. Locate all instances of the two letter word – to continue with our “San Diego CA homes” example, “CA” – and replace it with a three letter word by adding a random letter on the end of the two letter word. We would find all instances of “CA” and replace it with “CAX.”. It doesn’t matter what letter you choose, so long as you keep it constant throughout the text. Once you have found and replaced all instances of the word, put the text back into the Live Keyword Analysis. Then change the SEO copywriting keyword in the upper box to reflect the change you made.
Once you have your density, just hit Ctrl-Z in the Word document to undo the changes, and your text is ready to go.
Apostrophe’s Matter In SEO Copywriting
When your SEO copywriting assignment includes phrases that seem grammatically incorrect, you may think that you can change them. But when keywords are developed, they are chosen for very specific reasons. Grammar – and grammar mistakes – are always deliberate, and you need to keep them in your final text. Usually, the best way to handle this is to optimize for the grammatically correct term, but add in a few instances of the incorrect version. That way, your content will catch the attention of the search engines for both keywords.
Finalizing Your Content
Keep in mind that when the content is actually placed on the website, there will be other words in the HTML code that will be factored into the overall word count – this will lower your keyword density. The amount it will lower it depends on how much extra text is on the page (this is yet another reason to create pages with good, clean code). With the right tools to properly calculate keyword density, you will have greater flexibility and accuracy in your word counts.
**While keyword density is an essential part of SEO copywriting, the most critical focus — which good writers never compromise, is writing quality content for your audience!**
22 Responses to “SEO Copywriting: How To Calculate Keyword Density”
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Megan Lain
17. Dec, 2008
Wow – I never realized how minor copy details could have such a major impact on keyword density analysis. Thanks for the tips!
Christine
17. Dec, 2008
It is amazing isn’t it? What I find more interesting is that sometimes website copy doesn’t contain any keywords that the website owner wants to rank for at all! It sounds crazy, but it can be easy to never mention keywords because the site owner feels like they are implied by the context on the site. Thanks for the comment Megan!
John Friedlund
18. Dec, 2008
Thanks for such an informative article! I have always been confused about the ratio for singular keywords and how two letter words affect the ratio. Can’t wait to see the next article!
Christine
20. Dec, 2008
Hi John! It’s surprising that something as little as an “s” or an apostrophe could make such a big difference – but it does! Really glad this helped – thanks for sharing!
Donna
04. Jan, 2009
That entire concept was overwhelming to me – until I read this. Thanks – it’s not so confusing and frustrating now.
Melissa
15. Jan, 2009
Interesting! I noticed the problem with two letter words the other day, so I’ll try the method you suggest. And now I know how to better calculate the singular vs. plural. Thanks for the tips!
SEO Services CA
02. Mar, 2009
It is amazing to realize that most web sites are not properly optimized for maximum search engine visibility. The key to Internet success is to ensure that your website ranks highly in the various search engines commonly used.
Dafydd
12. Mar, 2009
I dont usually comment, but after reading through so much info I had to say thanks
Mortgage Mods
11. Apr, 2009
Finally someone who can write a good blog ! I loved your post and will be telling others about it. Subscribing to your RSS feed now. Thanks
Pagerank Checker
09. May, 2009
A fantastic read….very literate and informative. Many thanks….what theme is this you are using and also, where is your RSS button ?
wayne golliday
27. May, 2009
Ladies have you found that a keyword percentage works well at the 3% to 4% level in Real Estate SEO or do you stick to the 2% to 3%
Christine
27. May, 2009
Hi Wayne! I don’t know if there is a differing percent per industry. I like to stick to 2-3% because its more readable. Once the site itself is optimized, I then work on building keyword rich anchor text backlinks through quality content publishing and content marketing
Greg's Seo Copywriting Services
12. Aug, 2009
I’ve been studying Internet marketing for a long time, but I never knew that keyword density was calculated in this way. Thanks for the info!
Dubai rental
13. Aug, 2009
One important thing that the SEO copywriters should never forget is that the use of keywords should in no way affect the quality and meaning of the copy. Proper keyword density should never be achieved by compromising on the qualitative substance of the content.
SEO Nottingham
28. Aug, 2009
Great post, I always go for plural keywords as I found that google will rank for both (for example – services instead of service) and for keyword density you have to be careful, I do tend to include my keyword after 56 other words and this has had great success for me!
Milford MA Real Estate
08. Sep, 2009
Love your article! I am a Realtor who has taken a keen interest in SEO because I know how much it can benefit my business to be ranked for for popular Real Estate keyword searches. Of course your example using Real Estate agents was spot on. I am always looking for new SEO tips and glad I stumbled onto your blog.
The Woodlands Real Estate
27. Mar, 2010
Great information to know. I’ve read the “SEO for Dummies” and they touched on this subject but not as in detail as you have demonstrated here. It seems that the content side of the SEO equation is an art to itself. I can’t wait to apply this info to my website. Thanks.
Arlyne Peightell
03. May, 2010
This was helpful. I have been trying to find this for about 2 weeks now. Do you think web marketing is necessary?
Mendy Mikula
26. May, 2010
I don’t endorse programs very often except this new service is excellent. It’s a keyword tool which has a database of millions of keyword phrases showing the adwords traffic count per month together with the google competition count as well as other data.
At a click of a button you will discover phrases with traffic but no competition and I have used it already to get pages and sites to the top of the various search engines, even with no backlinks.
You can look at a video of it in use here – http://MarketEyeSite.com
Secretarial Services Scotland
04. Jun, 2010
I’m glad you put up the paragraph about apotrophes and the signular vs plural paragraph. It is so important and it’s an area seriously underestimated by many copywriters and web designers. A customer searching for, to use your example, “real estate agents” will have completely different need to someone seaching for “real estate agent”. You need to work out what the differences are and set up singular and plural keywords on the appropriate pages of your website.
Copywriting
24. Nov, 2010
Keyword density is the very important factor in search engine optimization. There should be 1-2 % keyword density in your articles and when making web copy then 2-3 % keyword density is ideal.
You can measure keyword density by keyword analysis and there are many SEO tools by which you can measure it. By context Status Tool you can measure keyword density of a particular keyword. There is an option for measuring it.
Try to use it. It will save your time rather than manually calculating it.
Liyya
03. Oct, 2011
Live Keyword Analysis is a life saver! It’s one of those web pages that I keep open everyday and all day long! I’m always plugging in content and checking the density — thanks for the helpful hints, Christine’s tips are very helpful when using this nifty tool!