Achieving Ideal Keyword Density Naturally
Online copywriters need to keep two distinct but interrelated goals in mind at all times when writing content: convincing the search engines to rank their content highly in their search results (preferably on the first page), and convincing their visitors to actually read the entire piece of content and once complete, act upon it.
For a typical e-commerce business website, the latter is all about writing copy that will convince the reader to purchase a product or service, while bloggers are more concerned about persuading their first-time and casual readers to become a loyal follower.
Regardless of the nature and purpose of your site or blog, the first goal can only be achieved through the proper use of certain SEO techniques – particularly, ones dealing with keyword density. But how do you achieve the right keyword density? Stuffing too many keywords will raise suspicion in search engines and result in an unnatural reading experience for your audience, while failing to include the keyword often enough will leave your site impossible to find in an ocean of competition and spam.
When Keyword Density Goes Too Far
The following example should give you an idea of a what a content block looks like when its keyword density has been pushed well beyond the limit of what could be considered “natural:”
Looking for the best HTC Android cell phone case? We have the best HTC Android cell phone case around. Whether you need an HTC Android cell phone case for your business HTC Android cell phone or your personal HTC Android cell phone, one of our HTC Android cell phone case will fit the bill. All of our HTC Android cell phone case come with free shipping.
It’s painfully easy to tell what the keyword phrase is in this paragraph, just as it’s painful to read the paragraph itself. Google sees this type of extreme keyword density as spam, and if anyone manages to find it on the internet, they’ll come to the same conclusion and avoid your site.
The following tips should help you capture a more appropriate and natural keyword density.
Use Punctuation to Your Advantage
Keyword phrases such as “personal injury lawyer San Francisco” are commonly typed into search engines (making them ideal keywords for SEO), but they rarely fit into a sentence without breaking the rules of grammar or at least sounding unnatural. The solution is to break up the keyword phrase into the end of one sentence (or phrase) and the beginning of another, obviously with a punctuation mark in between:
“Looking for a California personal injury lawyer? San Francisco is an increasingly litigious city.”
“If you’re seeking a personal injury lawyer, San Francisco has many from which to choose.”
Vary the Keyword Phrase by Adding to It
In some cases, you’ll want to focus on the singular variation of a keyword when it would be much easier from a content writing perspective to use the plural variation instead. For example, the keyword phrase “supplement for runner” is rather difficult to fit into a sentence on its own. However, it also opens up the opportunity for placing several keyword variations, which make your overall keyword density more natural and match with additional potential keyword searches. Some examples:
Supplement for runner fatigue
Supplement for runner speed
Supplement for runner endurance
You can take this concept even farther by adding words such as “natural” or “cheap” to the beginning of the keyword, again without sacrificing the purity of the original three-word phrase.
Use Keyword Phrases that Describe the Opposite of Your Product/Service
In many cases, you’ll want to target a popular keyword phrase that may have a negative connotation while still attracting a glut of keyword searches. Take the example of “poor battery life” as a keyword phrase relevant to consumer electronics. The phrase is universally negative, but you can attract that valuable search traffic without compromising the image of your products:
“Tired of tablet PCs with poor battery life? Try the Kindle Fire from Amazon.com. With a single charge lasting over 8 hours, you’ll never complain about poor battery life again.”
The main takeaway here is that it can be very useful (for both SEO and eventual conversions) to take a common problem experienced by those in your niche, and explain how your product/service avoids this problem.
