Optimal Copy - SEO Copywriting Blog

By Lisa Peyton

At the core of all search optimized copy is keyword content or “density”. SEO pros may disagree on just how important this content is, but they all agree that it’s important. There are several keyword density tools out there so I’ve listed my favorites for your consideration. I use the tools below to check out the keyword density of my landing pages and to check up on my copywriter’s work to see if I need to have him rework and increase the amount of times he has worked the targeted phrase into the text. I also use these tools to research the keyword density of the contenders for that coveted #1 spot on any given search engine for my keyword phrase, getting a good idea of where to set the bar for my own copy.

I would love to be able to say that there’s a set keyword density formula for all the top search results in Google—unfortunately, there isn’t. After testing out several phrases and comparing the top 5 results for each one, there is typically wide disparity between the keyword percentages on the page. I found some pages that had percentages as high as 40% and 50% for the targeted keyword phrase and others that didn’t even have the searched phrase in their title tag, resulting in an overall percentage closer to .23%, or less than 1%. This shows that there are several other factors being considered within those tricky search engine algorithms. But we all already knew that! So remember to keep keyword density in perspective–it’s only one component of a well-optimized page, but a relatively easy one to nail with the handy tools listed below:

http://www.keyworddensity.com/

At first I didn’t like the idea of having to find a second page when I was focusing on the density of the page I was building out, but it’s pretty interesting to compare the top ranking pages for your targeted keyword phrase. This tool is one of the only free resources I found that will let you enter the keyword phrase that you would like the resulting percentages to be based on. I think it’s a great starting place when trying to test out the keyword density of your content, but I wouldn’t use it as the only source for your data.

http://www.webjectives.com/keyword.htm

Webjectives offers another free tool that allows you to enter the keyword phrase along with the URL of your webpage. There are 2 check boxes that allow you to perform partial keyword matching and decide how to deal with case sensitivity. For example, “Technical Recruiter” would be a different keyword than “technical recruiter.” The results page breaks down the density using the individual components on the page–such as Title, Body, Meta and Alt tags, as well as giving you an overall total percentage. It very nicely counts all the words on the page for you and gives you a final weighted keyword density for the entire page.

http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/keyword-density/

This is a second type of tool that doesn’t ask you to input the keyword phrase, instead you enter the URL and check-off a handful of different options, including the number of keyterms to display, the elements to include such as alt tags and meta tags and the number of words per phrase, 1, 2 or 3 words. This tool is a bit limited if you are trying to optimize for some long-tail terms that may have more than 3 words. The result is simply a list of phrases and their corresponding percentages or density on the page. This tool is useful when trying to determine which keywords your competition is targeting since you don’t have to have a specific keyword phrase in mind when performing the analyses.

http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/

KeywordDiscovery, my current keyword research tool of choice, offers a density tool with their subscription service. It’s not technically “Free” but it’s included if you purchase their other keyword services, starting at about $70 bucks per month. Their keyword density tool is among those that don’t ask for specific keywords but return a list of phrases with the highest density. This tool allows up to 4 words per phrase, so it’s a bit more focused if you are targeting specific search terms. The chart includes the keyword phrase, density percentage, actual word count, number of searches for the term and whether the term is located in the title, description, and the link-text or heading of the page. Once again, this a great tool to see just how optimized your competitors’ web pages are. One quick glance allows you to see which words they have gone out of their way to target and how competitive they are.

Technorati Tags: seo copywriting portland, seo copywriting, search engine optimized copywriting, search engine marketing, internet marketing portland, keyword density tools, free keyword tools, free seo tools, portland copywriting

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 19th, 2007 at 11:22 am and is filed under Search Engine Optimized Copywriting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.