How many times can the same keyword appear in a meta description tag without penalty?

Question

This is source code from the adsense home page (code here is formatted to fit screen):

<title>
Make Money Online Through Website Monetization | 
Google AdSense – Google
</title>
<meta content=
"Learn how to make money online by pursuing your passion. 
We help you with website and content monetization so you can 
make money while doing what you love."
name="description">

In the title, the word "Google" appears twice and "make money" appears once. In the meta description, "make money" appears twice.

I would assume if a title is just "make money, you make money, time to make money" and the description is something like "make money, click here. make money big time. make money without gambling, just make money", then I wouldn't rank well?

What is the limit on how many times the same important string of keywords (such as "make money" in the adsense example) can appear in a meta description tag before any search engine bot believes I'm over-using the same keyword?

Answer 1

The concept of keyword density is obsolete in 2016. Putting a keyword twice or thrice is no better than having it once, more so in obscure tags like Meta Description which had been heavily abused in the past to influence ranks.

Craft a description that does what it is supposed to do; describe the content of the page in a nutshell. Don't make it look spammy and you should be fine.

You need to understand that Google uses the Meta Description to create snippets only when the searched keyword matches with the one in the meta description. For other instances, Google will randomly create a snippet based on the content of your page which has proximity to the keyword searched with, thereby completely ignoring your Meta Description content.

Answer 2

The weightage of keyword density in meta description for your SEO is now a very miniscule part of a super intelligent Google crawling and indexing algorithm.

According to my experience the description should be as relevant as possible and it has huge importance as :

This appears in the Google search result snippet which the actual user sees. If you have better content there w.r.t your competition then it increases chances of your result getting clicked. This in turn again improve your ranking as the CTR of your results is also a very important factor for SEO improvement.

Summarizing all :

1. Keep the description as meaningful and short withing max allowed limit as possible
   
2. Target multiple keywords rather then increasing density of one
   
3. Try and make it best and click prone by providing most relevant content + some icing on the cake like lowest price, offer etc.

Answer 3

In a meta description tag, keywords should ideally appear once or at most twice for optimal SEO performance. Repeating the same keyword multiple times can lead to keyword stuffing, which can negatively affect rankings. Meta descriptions should be concise, relevant, and naturally written to avoid any penalties from search engines.

It's more important that the meta description is appealing to users and summarizes the page content well, rather than overloading it with keywords.

Answer 4

While there isn't a strict limit on how many times a keyword can appear in a meta description, it's best to avoid keyword stuffing. Generally, using the target keyword once or twice in a natural and meaningful way is recommended.

Search engines prioritize user experience, so a well-written, engaging meta description that accurately describes the page content is more beneficial than one that is overly repetitive. Aim for a length of about 150-160 characters to ensure the full description displays in search results. Focus on clarity and relevance to improve click-through rates!