Website copy
On page copy is an area where best practice SEO has changed drastically over the last decade.
It used to be that, in order to rank for a certain phrase in Google search results, you would need to repeat that phrase a number of times in your on-page copy. How often would depend on the total amount of words in the copy, and would be measured as a percentage. If your page had 100 words and you mentioned “cheap flights” twice, that meant a keyword density of 2% for that phrase.
Keywords, keywords, keywords
Unfortunately, SEO agencies were seldom happy with a keyword density of 2%, and the ideal keyword density within the industry was at times as high as 7-10%. This lead to an insurmountable amount of sites across the web with keywords clumsily shoehorned into its pages. For copywriters it was a nightmare, for visitors it looked weird and to Google, it was spam.
Slowly SEO professionals agreed the ideal keyword density was a more realistic 2-4%, and eventually, Google’s Matt Cutts had to explicitly say in one of his videos that we should stop obsessing over keyword density and just write copy that befits the topic at hand.
A more balanced approach
Today, I would recommend that you mention the targeted keyword of a certain page at least once, but with no requirement for further repetition, unless it happens to come naturally.
More importantly, it’s important to remember that the copy written for your website is going to be read by humans. Therefore, rather than obsessing over keyword density for search engine bots, website owners would do better by focusing on what the page hopes to achieve.
If you have an eCommerce website selling sofas, a nice paragraph about the quality and materials of the sofa that’s not just a copy and paste from the manufacturer will be a nice touch to get people interested in buying the product.
If you run a hotel, mentioning the features of the well-appointed rooms and things to do in your location in a fluid, easy-to-read style is going to be better than just listing off what you offer with loads of keywords stuffed in for ranking purposes.
A winning formula
Ultimately, it is possible to get good rankings without highly targeted website copy, but it’s much better if you follow the advice above, you will be much more likely to do so.