It depends. If anyone tells you a straight up answer, I believe they’re mistaken!
You have to check the data. Why guess…
- Google the term.
- Pick some sites ranking in the top 10, hopefully, some that are niche or affiliate sites too. 3 to 5 sites should give you a good idea of what density Google likes.
- Check the keyword density using a tool like SEO Quake which is free. See my video on using SEO Quake.
- Average the density of the keyword phrase.
- Aim for the average and don’t worry about being exact.
Get all my templates & systems for niche sites.
The point is some keywords can be used more often.
The Yoast SEO Plugin tells me to use a keyword X% of the time. What should I do?
You shouldn’t listen to the Yoast SEO.
Yoast sucks for keyword density. It’ll lead to keyword stuffing and your site won’t rank well!
It’s a tool made for basic SEO ideas, and if you’re reading this now (and I know you are!) or using the Keyword Golden Ratio method, then you’re doing advanced KW research. Yoast wasn’t really made for you — not anymore — congratulations! You are an advanced SEO now.
My advice is to totally ignore Yoast for keyword density – use it for some of the advanced features (like noindexing category archives or editing the htaccess file).
Onsite SEO Questions
- How many affiliate links should I have in each article?
- What’s the best keyword density? Or how many times should I use a keyword in my post?
- The Yoast SEO Plugin tells me to use a keyword X% of the time. What should I do?
- How many subheadings (H2 and H3) should I use?
- How many H1 tags should I use?
- Should I use a silo structure on my site?
- What’s the best template for an Amazon Affiliate Review?