SEO Copywriting: How To Calculate Keyword Density
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!**
