Keyword ratio or “density”: why you shouldn’t go over

by Joost Nusselder | Updated on:  18/07/2022

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Generally speaking, a keyword ratio is the percentage of times a particular keyword or phrase appears in relation to the overall content on a page.

For example, if a web page contains 100 words and the keyword appears 5 times, the keyword ratio would be 5%.

While there is no magic number, a general guideline is to aim for a keyword ratio of 1-2%. However, this will vary depending on the industry and competition. For example, in a very competitive industry, a higher keyword ratio may be necessary to rank well in search engine results pages (SERPs).

In general, it is important to strike a balance between using a keyword too often (which can result in penalties from search engines) and not using it enough (which will make it difficult to rank for that keyword). As with all things related to SEO, it is important to test and experiment to find what works best for your particular website and situation.

I find that when you don’t worry about using the keyword too often or often enough but just write so people will like to read the content and find it informative, you will never go over a dangerous keyword density.

I also think that you don’t have to include the specific keyword at all, especially if it’s a multi-word phrase, like “keyword ratio”. Just talk about the ratio to use keywords in and Google will know :)

Joost Nusselder is The Content Decoder, a content marketer, dad and loves trying out new tools en tactics. He's been working on a portfolio of niche sites since 2010. Now since 2016 he creates in-depth blog articles together with his team to help loyal readers earn from their own succesful sites.