1

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?

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4
  • meta description isnt used for ranking - up or down.
    – user29671
    Jun 20, 2016 at 16:35
  • How is that true?
    – Mike -- No longer here
    Jun 20, 2016 at 23:03
  • ? Not sure I understand your query. its true because it is and always has been. Quick google search will confirm this for you.
    – user29671
    Jun 21, 2016 at 5:33
  • Writing a clear,descriptive, non-spammy meta description increases the chances that google will use your snippet for matching searches instead of one they generate themselves.
    – user29671
    Jun 21, 2016 at 5:38

2 Answers 2

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1

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.

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3
  • I'm going to look into option 3 and squeeze in the same keyword one more time. Perhaps my descriptions are too short.
    – Mike -- No longer here
    Jun 19, 2016 at 17:54
  • meta description is not used for rankings. Worrying about keyword density is therefore irrelevant.
    – user29671
    Jun 21, 2016 at 5:35
  • Yes that is what I have written. Stop thinking about density, make it super clear and impressive.
    – abhinsit
    Jun 21, 2016 at 5:40
0

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.

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2
  • That's why I'm asking, because I'm focusing on a keyword people want that appear only once in the title, once in the meta description and once in the H1. I'm just unsure if adding it twice in the meta description is an issue which is why I asked.
    – Mike -- No longer here
    Jun 19, 2016 at 16:36
  • Adding it twice in the description won't be an issue.
    – pro_ng
    Jun 19, 2016 at 16:38

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