Keyword Density: Do Bloggers Need It?
It is my responsibility at Blog Content Provider to ensure that bloggers are trained properly on blog optimization techniques and helping our customers achieve the results they are looking for from their blogs. One of my newest bloggers asked me recently what keyword density I want to see in my blog posts. It’s a question that one will see frequently in forums, though I admit I don’t get it as much any more. But some new bloggers still wonder about keyword density. My response is always the same.
In my view, keyword density is a poor measure of SEO success. It doesn’t really get you anywhere and the reason is because all of the search engines have a multitude of factors that they take in and consider when it comes to ranking websites for keyword positioning. You can’t rely on one factor alone and keyword density relies too heavily upon the use of keywords within your blog posts. An overly aggressive tendency to focus on keywords could lead to spammy behavior and, well, that won’t help you any - particularly when the search engines now use semantic technology to determine whether content is useful or not.
No one knows for sure what the most important ranking factors are, but through trial and error, many SEOs have discovered that some things are better than others. As a general rule, the following factors are some of the ranking factors that search engines consider when deciding where you should rank for your keywords:
- Keyword usage in your blog post title
- Keyword position within your blog post title
- Subheads with h1, h2, or h3 tags in conjunction with keyword usage
- Keyword anchor text usage
- Overall keyword usage within your blog post content
- Title attributes within your links
- Photo optimization practices like alt tags and surrounding text
- Relevant inbound links
- Quality of inbound links to your blog’s index page as well as each individual blog post
- Outbound links in your sidebar
- Dofollow vs. nofollow tags and destination pages of your blog post links, sidebar links, and comment links
In all, the search engines analyze over 200, or close to 300, ranking factors. Too much emphasis on any one or handful of these could lead to a reputation as a spammer or ineffective SEO. That’s why I try to teach my bloggers to think for themselves and to understand how their content is being read by and analyzed by the search engines for ranking purposes. Blog marketing is a long-term strategy that can result in your blog achieving high rankings for you keywords over time, but it isn’t an overnight success mission. Don’t treat it that way. Consistency, persistence, and flexibility are key characteristics to develop if you want to be a successful blogger.
Learn more about blog optimization from the blog optimization experts.
