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When compting the keyword density on your text, do you also count approximations or just exact matches?

For example if I' targeting the keyword: "chocolate cheesecakes"

but in my text I use "chocolate cheese cake" and "chocolate cheesecake" interchangeably, will the first variation also be considered for keyword density, or just the exact match?

I've done about 5 inconclusive experiments regarding this topic, and I haven't been able to find the right answer on the internet.

NOTE

I'm not doing SEO for Google, but for specialized search engines (e-commerce) that do take in consideration keyword density to position results.

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    Keyword density is irrelevant. I'd worry about the quality of the content rather then a useless metric of nothing.
    – John Conde ♦
    Jul 20 '13 at 3:46
  • That might be true for google, but not for other search engines, like Etsy's search engine where keyword density has some weight.
    – ILikeTacos
    Jul 20 '13 at 4:13
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    Also, I wouldn't dare to say that keyword density is irrelevant, I believe that even google uses keyword density as a metric to classify spam, perhaps it doesn't have a lot of weight. Texts with high density are more likely to be spammy, than texts with low density.
    – ILikeTacos
    Jul 20 '13 at 4:21
  • I wouldn't dare say keyword density is relevant, regardless if its for Google, Bing or Esty then you should always write for your audience, populating pages with keyword density percentages dampens the experience and gimps your conversion rates. Good writers will always write for the audience and naturally a good keyword rate will be included just enough so the audience gets a good feel for the page, repeating the word microwave several times on a page when you have a big large picture of a microwave is silly, you should also be aware that keywords are found in URL, H1, ALT Tags, Meta Desc.
    – Simon Hayter
    Jul 20 '13 at 16:05
  • I'm not saying its irrelevant either but I wouldn't dare write for search engines either :) Conversion Conversion Conversion should be your top priority meaning that keywords are your least priority, since heavily keyword populated pages convert less.
    – Simon Hayter
    Jul 20 '13 at 16:07
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Whether or not synonyms and word order are important or included in keyword density implementation specific. To be able to answer your question, we would need to know what search engine you are targeting, and be able to look at its code, or do black box testing against it to know how it calculates keyword density.

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True to what the other guy said. Rather then keyword spamming, focus on better content that is more detailed and descriptive and includes information others dont.

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    As I said, google is smart and might be able to overlook keyword density... however there are other search engines not-so-smart that rely on metrics such as keyword density to determine relevant results.
    – ILikeTacos
    Jul 20 '13 at 4:14

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