The Dangers of SEO Keyword Stuffing

Google ranks your content, your website, and your business based on a range of factors.

It uses them as an indication of how worthy and relevant your content is for your targeted audience.

Even though times have changed, Google still considers relevant keyword placement as a signal of quality content. And it’s still a part of every digital marketing strategy to rank your business on the search engine.

So, it isn’t surprising when businesses stuff keywords into their content in hopes to quickly grasp a higher rank!

But what is keyword stuffing, and how much of it is really good for your business in the long term?

If this is what you’ve been wondering for some time, then read on to find all the answers you need!

What Is Keyword Stuffing?

In simple terms, keyword stuffing is what companies and many individuals think to be a loophole in Google’s algorithm.

It’s a way to mislead Google into believing that your content has the ‘it’ factor of being ranked at the top.

Businesses apply keyword stuffing by filling their content with awkwardly placed terms, just to boost their chances of being discovered.

Sometimes businesses even use terms that don’t fit in with the content at all!

However, since an update in 2003, search engines have grown smarter.

Today, Google’s algorithm considers the site in its entirety. It takes into account the semantics and the commercial intent of the user to determine the relevance of your website — of course, along with the keywords — to the query being searched.

The Dangers of Keyword Stuffing

The question here is simple: Is too much of a good thing still great? The answer is a definite no.

Because, apart from being ethically flawed, visible keyword stuffing in your content could work against you.

Instead of improving your site’s ranking, it could be a signal for Google that a business is trying to misdirect its algorithm to enter Google search results.

This may not seem too criminal, but Google takes this offence very seriously.

It penalizes any website holder who creates keyword stuffed pages, which in most cases, gets you blacklisted from Google.

So, it could harm your page’s ranking. And it could also force your business out of the search engine results pages, while running your credibility into dust.

Is it a risk worth being taken? Surely not.

Moreover, filling pages with keywords can make your content sound forced and unnatural, creating a negative user experience.

How to Avoid Keyword Stuffing For SEO

The change in Google and its algorithm began in 2003 with the Florida update — a measure taken to protect its users from spam content.

This is where Google identified the misuse of keywords, technically creating measures to rank deserving websites more effectively.

Worthy Content and SEO

The simplest way to save yourself from being penalized by Google is to write information-rich content that uses keywords appropriately and in context.

Instead of using the same keyword again and again, tell your target audience what they want to know — what they need to know — so that when they read your content, they can rely on you and benefit from investing their time in you.

Plus, when you create content with a selective purpose, you automatically create relevance for your users.

You wouldn’t need to stuff keywords into your website for SEO anymore.

They’ll naturally blend in with your content as you answer the query your intended audience had searched for.

So, think about your targeted audience. Think of them as human readers, and consider, what they would want to know about your business.

Ask yourself: If you were them, what target keyword would you use to search in the first place? And what kind of content would you expect?

SEO and Keywords — The Hassle of Keeping Balance

There are two specified elements that determine the weight and use of your keywords, or to say, your content’s keyword optimization.

Keyword Density and Distribution.

Although, technically they’re just numbers stating how many times you’ve used a keyword throughout your content, search engine crawlers use these as a measure to see if you have gone overboard with the keywords.

It’s straightforward once you get the hang of it.

You don’t need keyword stuffing examples to know if a blog post or copy has a high keyword density. Just read your own web content.

And ask yourself: would you read an article that uses the the same word, say SEO, in every other sentence?

SEO and Keyword Placement — Get to Know Your Target Audience

The best way to ensure that your content, your website, and your business makes it into the search rankings is by trying to provide your user with a quality experience.

Learn about your targeted audience and try to provide them with ease of access. Write copies that focus on creating a connection with them.

Focus on creating useful, information-rich content.

Once your business succeeds in gaining the natural flow of communication and a real understanding with its audience, your business content will gain credibility on its own. It will prepare your business for excellence in the long term.

Keywords are a definite signal and each keyword carries a great weight for your business. There is no denying that. Because if a keyword is placed carefully — just the way a user would type their query — it will signal Google about your brand’s worthiness and its relevance to the user.

This will place your content over and above the websites of your competition, giving you the golden chance to add another customer to your list.

However, at the same time, the urge to overuse keywords can do more harm than good, as it could increase the bounce rate of your website, reducing the rank that you’ve maintained so far!

It isn’t easy — placing the right keywords and not overdoing it. It’s a risky balance to keep.

This is probably why businesses prefer using the professional services of an SEO keyword specialist to optimize their website to brilliance.

Primal is an SEO agency based in Kuala Lumpur that provides SEO services to wide range of industries. Contact us today and get free SEO audit.