Say you are using an online site builder that analyzes the number of times a keyword appears in your copy.

Sometimes it gives some really weird analysis (like “you need to use your keyword 32 more times on this page!”). Yet you have been reading that Google hardly pays attention to keywords at all these days. Should you even bother dealing with keyword density?

Keyword density is now an outdated concept in SEO, especially when it comes to Google. In the past, it was the single most important factor for judging the value of a web page.

But this was back in the pre-Google era (now if THAT doesn’t give you a hint about how outdated keyword density is…). With Google’s reliance on its PageRank algorithm – and the general trend towards off-page factors determining more and more of your website’s rankings – the importance of keyword density as an on-page optimization tool began to diminish.

Yet people continued to theorize about what the ideal keyword density should be. Estimates ranged from 2% to 8%.

Keyword density, in case you are wondering, is measured by the following formula:

Keyword Density Formula

d = x / y where:
x = number of times a keyword is used in a block of content (page)
y = total word count of the page
d = keyword density

The problem with keyword density is quite simple – it is very, very easy to manipulate and spam. Spammers used automated content generators to create highly optimized web pages with high keyword densities.

As search engines started to set limits on “acceptable” keyword density, spammers got smarter and smarter and reduced their keyword density as well, making it especially hard for search engines to separate spam content from genuine, useful content.

Search Engines and Keyword Density
Since search engines could not conceivably check every page manually (Google indexes about 8.1 billion pages – and pages are added daily), and they couldn’t tolerate spam in their search results, search engines have significantly devalued keyword density as a ranking tool.

Keyword positioning (placing the keywords in title tags and header tags) as well as thematic keyword relevance (a fancy term that refers to how related your core keywords are to your website’s main theme or niche) are far more important that the number of keywords in terms of onpage optimization.

And that, of course, pales in comparison to how important off-page optimization, or link building, is. If the page building tool you’re using was designed way back in the days when keyword density mattered, it may rely on a fairly high keyword density percentage (32 keywords on a page is probably more than most ultra-spammy auto-generated sites contain).

It’s almost impossible to repeat a keyword that many times in a normal web page and make it readable.

So ignore those messages about keyword density and focus on the following instead:

• Good, useful, quality content
• Keyword positioning
• Keyword relevance

Yesterday I explained the basic principles behind finding good long tail keywords – think like someone who is interested in READING about your topic, what they would search on, because you’re looking for phrases with 4 words.

Now today I’m going to show you how to research for these 4 word keyphrases.

First step, I just go to the Google AdWords keyword tool…

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

and type in something. I try to make it at least a couple of words, something like “ferrari f430.”

But you can also type in something general, then dig down and look for a longer phrase that looks interesting, then search on that. It might take a couple tries but you’ll soon find some good prospects.

When the results show up underneath I look for a keyword of 4 words or more where the bar is at least 15-25% filled up in the “average search” column. Something like ‘michael schumacher ferrari f430′ or ‘price of ferrari f430.’

Having something in the search bar for a PRIOR month is a plus too. But just because there is nothing for a prior month don’t let that stop you, often it’s because the keyword is about a hot new trend or topic or product.

Then I go to Google and type that keyphrase in the search box and then look at how many competing sites I have on the first page of results.

I’ve found that most of the time you’ll be under 5 million results which is where I like to stay. Often you’ll find a phrase with only 100,000 – 500,000 competing results, which is great!

Second step, I search that same term with “double quotes” around it, like this:

“price of ferrari f430″

And I try to make sure that THAT number comes back with less than 100,000 results. Again, you’ll be surprised how often that happens!

LASTLY…

I look at the ALL the top pages that are coming up for the the 4+ word search term.

• I want to make sure that the top ranking pages don’t all have crazy PRs of like 5 or 6 (most never do). If only the top few do, no problem, but if ALL on the first page do, that’s a bad keyword to shoot for.
• I look at the TITLES of all the top ranking pages. Most of the time I find that they are NOT directly my keyword! If so, that’s sweet, that means that JUST by having my keyword in the title, my chances of ranking on page #1 just shot through the roof !

So that’s truly how my blogs get automated traffic from search engines that builds EVERY single day…it’s an awesome method, that’s why we teach this and many more techniques like it in Blog Classroom – because it works!

I really urge you to try this just once and you’ll be HOOKED on this method of writing blog posts to get auto-pilot traffic from Google!