Marketing Dictionary
Keyword Density
Definition
The percentage of times a keyword or phrase appears on a web page compared to the total number of words on the page.
Deep Dive
Keyword density refers to the percentage of times a specific keyword or phrase appears on a web page relative to the total number of words on that page. Historically, this metric was a significant factor in search engine optimization (SEO), with early search engines often correlating higher keyword density with greater page relevance for a given query. SEO practitioners would aim for a particular percentage to signal to search engines what topic their content was about, often leading to over-optimization in an attempt to rank higher.
Examples & Use Cases
- 1A blog post about "sustainable gardening tips" that uses the exact phrase "sustainable gardening tips" 5 times in a 500-word article, resulting in a 1% keyword density for that term
- 2An outdated web page from the early 2000s about "cheap flights" that repeats "cheap flights" dozens of times within a small paragraph, creating an unnaturally high density
- 3An SEO content analysis tool showing that the primary keyword on a product page appears 8 times out of 800 words, indicating a 1% keyword density.
Related Terms
SEOKeyword StuffingSemantic SEO