There Is No Right Number In SEO

I’ve heard so many questions over the years from people who want precise numbers and exact measurements for all the elements of SEO. Like…

Exactly how many incoming links do I need to get on the front page? In the top 3? To be #1?
Exactly how many keywords can I focus on? Exactly how many times should my keywords appear on every page?
What is the perfect keyword density ratio? Am I spamming? Am I stuffing? I’m worried I might be stuffing!?!
Exactly how many backlinks do I need with each keyword as anchor text to get into the top 3?
Exactly how many backlinks do I need from a PR4 site to get into the top 3? What about PR5?
Exactly how many pages do I need? What is the absolute perfect site size?
Precisely how fast should my site load? What is the optimal number of seconds?
Exactly how many characters should be in my title tags? Exactly how many keywords should I use in my title tags?

Honestly, if you stopped spending your time looking for answers to these genuinely inconsequential (bordering on ridiculous) questions and started spending it on improving the quality of your backlinks and the content of your website, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

If your entire website consists of 4 pages, hasn’t been updated since launch, and contains about ½ tsp of useful content, I’m certainly not surprised that it’s not ranking well. Are you? Search your most coveted keyword and look at the sites in the top 10. What are they doing that you’re not? Don’t look at their outgoing vs incoming link ratio, their keyword density, or their site load speed. Don’t spend an afternoon compiling a list of numbers. Yes, these elements ARE part of the algorithms search engines use to rank sites, but they are minute parts. What matters is content and links. Chances are, your competitors have a higher quality of both.

Don’t be duped into thinking SEO is a scientific or mathematical equation you can solve. There’s no right number. The answer is unique, useful content and high quality, relevant links.