Site Owners Forums - Webmaster Forums - The difference between keyword density, frequency, prominence and proximity

Keyword Density
Keyword density refers to the ratio (percentage) of keywords contained within the total number of indexable words within a web page.
The preferred keyword density ratio varies from search engine to search engine. In general, I recommend using a keyword density ratio in the range of 2-8%.
You may like to use this real-time keyword analysis tool to help you optimize a web page's keyword density ratio.

Keyword Frequency
Keyword frequency refers to the number of times a keyword or keyword phrase appears within a web page.
The theory is that the more times a keyword or keyword phrase appears within a web page, the more relevance a search engine is likely to give the page for a search with those keywords.
In general, I recommend that you ensure that the most important keyword or keyword phrase is the most frequently use keywords in a web page.
But be careful not to abuse the system by repeating the same keyword or keyword phrases over and over again.

Keyword Prominence
Keyword prominence refers to how prominent keywords are within a web page.
The general recommendation is to place important keywords at, or near, the start of a web page, sentence, TITLE or META tag.

Keyword Proximity
Keyword proximity refers to the closeness between two or more keywords. In general, the closer the keywords are, the better.