Keyword stuffing may lead to a website being banned or penalized on major search engines either temporarily or permanently.
I was reading an article online the other day and to say the least, it was unhelpful because the author had written it with an unhealthy goal in mind. And that is to gain an unfair rank advantage in search engines.
So I thought, why not educate you on the topic “keyword stuffing”. Since most writers tend to fall into this bad habit in their effort to rank high in search engines?
What is Keyword Stuffing?
Keyword stuffing in simple terms is “the process of jamming web page content, webpage meta tags or backlink anchor text with keywords”. That is, loading your site or article with keywords to improve the page’s ranking in the search results.
Basically, keyword stuffing is the Lord Voldemort of the SEO world.
Why Keyword Stuffing is Bad for SEO
There was a time when the method of keyword stuffing worked. Back then, one could easily rank on a large variety of keywords by cluttering them onto a page, even if the keywords were unrelated and the site was absent of any real content.
But this generally led to bad user experience as users aren’t looking to find a site that reads “changing a flat tire” repeated a thousand times. Google and other search engines wised up and began to filter out these pages as they were entirely lacking useful content.
So, is keyword stuffing good for SEO? Well, stuffing your site with keywords will result in users not understanding your article or web page. More especially if it does not flow with the content.
Thus, increasing the bounce rate of your website, lowering your rankings on search engine results pages and Google penalizing your site if they catch you. Guess what? Your page could even be removed altogether!
How to Avoid Keyword Stuffing
Effective Keyword Research
Sourcing for the best keywords to use in your content before writing is a very important first step to take to avoid keyword spamming or stuffing.
Two of the best recommended tools you can use for conducting effective keyword research are Hypersuggest and the Keywords Everywhere Chrome Extension tool. Another popular and mostly ignored tool is the Google suggest keywords from the Google search bar.
Write Naturally
When writing, you should try not to think about what keywords to insert at the beginning. You should mainly focus on your readers by thinking of how your topic affects them and ensuring they have the best experience while on your site.
One of the most common causes of keyword stuffing is the belief that you are writing essentially for search engine algorithms. Remind yourself that you are writing for humans. The thing is, if you simply write in a way that is natural and that makes sense to human readers, everything else will fall into place.
Avoid Repeating Keyword Phrases
Repeating the same words over and over is irritating. It makes your content not helpful and unreadable. Here is a keyword stuffing example, so you can fully understand what I’m talking about:
“We offer a printing service. Our printing service is the best. If you’re thinking of getting a printing service, please contact our printing service technicians at printing.service@example.com“.
Review Your Content After Writing
When you are writing from an SEO perspective, it is very easy to lose guard with keywords. So you must read and reread your work to ensure you haven’t used keywords in unnecessary places. It can also help if you read your content aloud or request the help of a friend to proofread your content.
Use Longtail Keywords
Longtail keywords are specific keywords. They are usually three or four-word phrases that are likely used in searches by a highly targeted audience [such as local customers]. For example, instead of “barbershop” use a specific phrase such as “barbershop in Lagos”.
Using long-tail keywords will help search engines understand what your site is all about. So they can better match your web page with peoples search queries, giving you more organic traffic and better visitors.
How to Check Keyword Stuffing
In the process of avoiding keyword stuffing, it is very important to know how to analyze your content for keyword stuffing.
A simple way is to calculate the keyword density of your article or blog post. The keyword density of a copy is:
Keyword Density = (Number of words in copy) / (Number of times keyword appears in copy)
Another easy way is to use the Yoast SEO plugin to calculate the keyword density of your content for you within a short period.
Difference Between Keyword Stuffing and Keyword Density
We’ve talked about keyword stuffing above. Now let’s talk about keyword density and the difference between the two.
Keyword density refers to the number of times a keyword appears within a content or web page in the overall word count. It can also be referred to as keyword frequency. If you are looking to calculate your keyword density the formula is “keyword density = 100 x Total Number of keyword / Total Number of words”.
Apart from this formula, you should also note that Google guidelines define the statics or specific figure of keywords the content or web page contains. Otherwise, if general keyword density gets crossed from 2% then, it will be called keyword stuffing.
Tools Used to Check Keyword Stuffing
There are so many free keyword stuffing checker tools on the internet that can be used to optimize your content against keyword spamming. Examples are:
The number one keyword stuffing checker I recommend especially if you are using WordPress to manage your content is the Yoast SEO plugin. Yoast plugin is a free WordPress plugin that also comes with a paid version that helps you avoid littering your content with the same keywords.
All you need to do is to download the plugin and install it with your WordPress theme, and you are ready to go.
Hypersuggest
HyperSuggest is a keyword tool that delivers thousands of keywords and ideas from 9 different networks like Google, Amazon, eBay, Instagram, etc. in seconds.
You can use HyperSuggest to find out how often a keyword is searched in a certain country per month. All you need to do is to register for a plan, and start creating awesome content that ranks on the first page of Google SERPs.
Keyword Density Checker
Keyword density checker helps you measure in percentage, the number of times a keyword or phrase appears compared to the total number of words on a web page. Some common free keyword density checkers are
You can also search online for more tools that could help you check if your content is “stuffed” with keywords or you can follow the tips above to avoid stuffing.
Conclusion
Producing great content with your readers in mind is the best way to avoid keyword stuffing in your articles, meta tags, blog posts and backlink texts.
The more users stay on your page and enjoy your content, the more Google ranks your content as being relevant and helpful to the community. And therefore, increases your organic rankings and position on the search engine results page (SERP).
Using keyword checker tools and other SEO marketing tools helps in getting the right keywords for your content and reduce the rate of web spamming.
So there you have it, hope this article has enlightened you. Remember, use keywords judiciously to give your readers the best experience and also to avoid getting your site banned!
As we all know, it’s not all about writing and publishing content. Yet, it’s about producing contents that users love when they land on your page and then convert these users into paying customers. You need to create, update and optimize your contents for SEO.
The easiest way to do this is to message or contact Helprocure. We offer SEO and content marketing services for b2b businesses and b2c businesses at an affordable price. Start Now!
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Have you been a victim of keyword stuffing? Comment below, what other strategies did you use to reduce the stuffing of keywords in your web page?
Like!! I blog quite often and I genuinely thank you for your information. The article has truly peaked my interest.
Thank you very much. Happy to help.
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