In our ongoing discussion of search engine optimization, keyword density impacts how valued your site is. What is keyword density? (Glad you asked.) Simply, keyword density is the number of times a particular keyword appears within in the total amount of text on the page. To get your keyword density, count all of the times a particular keyword is used. Now, count all of the words on your page, total. Divide total words into number of keywords, and that's your keyword density.

By way of example, there are 80 words in the preceding paragraph, and the word "keyword" appears 8 times. The keyword density of that word is 10%. That would be great if "keyword" were one of the keywords we want to use to market our site.

Why? Because the search engines like to serve up relevant content to their users; it keeps Google in business. So, when someone searches on particular keywords, Google is going to look for a page that's chock full of those keywords to serve up in the top spots. If you're selling broccoli bagels online, then you want to repeat the words "broccoli bagels" frequently.

I know what you're thinking... "If Google wants to see a lot of keywords, then I'll just repeat my keywords 'broccoli bagels" 50 times at the bottom of the page!" Well, get that thought out of your head right now, mister! Google looks for a high keyword density, but they also know when they're being taken for a ride. If that density is too high (given a good amount of text on the page), they will ban you as a spammer. And that would be bad.

The easiest way to do this is to keep the text on most of your pages brief -- say, two or three paragraphs, with your keywords sprinkled generously throughout.