Posted in Internet Marketing Strategy	October 5, 2005

Understand how to use the Motoricerca Keyword Density Analyzer to calculate true keyword density (KD) and how KD varies for two- and three-word keyword phrases that are your best opportunities to improve your search engine rankings.

Executive Summary

• Keyword density (KD) is a key factor in how search engines rank your pages
• While 2.7 percent KD is a good target for two-word phrases in editorial copy, more in-depth analysis is recommended for SEO of keyword landing pages
• The Motoricerca Keyword Density Analyzer is a fast, accurate and free tool for doing more complex analysis of two- and three-word phrase KD.

My father was fond of saying, "A man's work is only as good as his tools." My dad liked tools and gadgets of all kinds and invented a few that actually made him a few bucks. Apparently a love of good tools is genetic. I love tools for woodworking, gardening and electronics diagnostics and repair. I also love tools for Internet marketing and publishing, and I've just found a SEO tool that sheds light on what search engines like Google, Yahoo! and MSN see when they crawl and index your webpages. The tool is called the Motoricerca Keyword Density Analyzer. Its 100 percent free, made in Italy and is available online in an English language version.

The Motoricerca Keyword Density Analyzer calculates the one-, two- and three-word keyword density for any URL on the Web in an instant. It also allows you to suppress words like "the" and "to" that search engines discount in their own algorithms, plus any other words you'd like to drop to form the analysis. The Motoricerca Keyword Density Analyzer also allows you to do a number of other advanced calculations.

To demonstrate, let's compare the simple keyword density calculations I made using Microsoft Word for the Mequoda Daily case study published on August 24, 2005, titled, "How to Test a Successful Co-Reg Lead Generation Program." Although the Daily is barely two months old, a full-title search for this article in Google results in a top 30 ranking for the article page. Several shorter three- to five-word variations are in the top 100 and climbing as more links are added. Hence, I know the page is being crawled and indexed properly. (Note: If you'd like to participate in these pages ascending, add the title of the article and a link to the page to any website about Internet marketing in a forum, blog, resource directory or other appropriate place.)

Simple Keyword Density:

• Co-Reg: 22/715 or 3.1 percent
• Lead Generation Program: 7/308 or 2.3 percent

Motoricerca Keyword Density Analyzer:

• Co-Reg: 31/335 or 9.25 percent
• Lead Generation Program: 8/164 or 4.88 percent

The Difference: While Microsoft Word simple counts the total words on the page and then I calculate keyword density by dividing the number of occurrences by the total number of words, the Motoricerca Keyword Density Analyzer calculates the number of two- and three-word phrases excluding two-letter words, and then calculates the density of the two- and three-word phrases among all other two- and three-word phrases on the page. Take a look at the report below to see the density of all the one-, two- and three-word phrases and their relative keyword density as calculated by the Motoricerca Keyword Density Analyzer.

Tip: While Google values a KD of two to three percent, Yahoo! and MSN favor a much higher KD of three to seven percent for two- and three-word phrases as calculated using the more complex calculation simulated by the Motoricerca Keyword Density Analyzer. SEO experts agree that exceeding a 10 percent KD for two- and three-word terms calculated this way will result in a negative KD weighting for all three of the big search engines.

Lesson: While Microsoft Word provides an easy way for writers and editors to calculate rudimentary keyword density, its good to remember that every search engine makes this calculation using a significantly more complex calculation, and that every search engine makes the calculation a little differently. We stand by our simple 2.7 percent keyword density goal as the right goal for day-to-day SEO activities for editorial content. However, when you're building search engine landing pages that are part of your site's primary conversion architecture, it pays to go the extra step using tools like the Motoricerca Keyword Density Analyzer to more fully understand what a search engine sees when crawling and indexing your pages and the top pages you're trying to displace.

Recommended Resources

• Keyword Density Analyzer by Motoricerca
• Keyword Density Defined by MarketingTerms.com
• How Keyword Density, Frequency, Prominence And Proximity Affects Search Engine Rankings by Michael Wong
• Keyword Density: SEO Considerations by Wayne Hurlbert