What is Term Frequency?
When you search for something online, you type in words or phrases. Term frequency is about how many times those words and phrases you searched for appear on a webpage or in an article.
For example, if you search "dog toys" and a webpage mentions "dog toys" 20 times, that means its term frequency is 20.
The more a word shows up, the more relevant that page is considered for that word.
But term frequency alone is not the whole story. It's part of something called TF-IDF (Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency). That looks at how often a word appears across a web page or is relevant to it.
So a word that shows up a bunch on one page is seen as very relevant and important for that specific page.
Using Words Naturally
While using relevant words is important for showing up in searches, you sometimes go overboard with it. Something called keyword stuffing, where you cram words everywhere, often makes content awkward and hard to read.
Search engines are smart and will likely notice if you do this too aggressively with keywords.
Write for People First
Start by writing engaging and valuable content for your readers, using keywords naturally in a conversational way. Sprinkle in those relevant words where it makes sense, but don't force them.
At the end of the day, if your content is high-quality and helpful, it will do well in search anyway. Search engines are getting smarter about identifying relevance beyond just keywords.
So use words wisely as part of your writing strategy, not as the only focus. Good, engaging writing usually wins in the end!