Keyword Stuffing and Why It Should Be Avoided
When it comes to doing SEO and optimizing your website to get better search results and page rankings, you’re bound to be tempted to take shortcuts. You might think that there is no harm in using tactics that will get you better rankings faster in the short term, But resorting to shortcuts and black hat SEO tactics will not only help improve your site’s SEO status; Rather, it will cause damage to your business that will be very difficult, if not impossible, to compensate for. In this article, we will go to one of these methods called keyword stuffing and after defining and describing its disadvantages, we will introduce solutions that you can use to ensure your success without resorting to this inefficient method.
What is keyword stuffing?
As it is known, “Keyword Stuffing” is a combination of two words, Keyword and Stuffing, meaning filling. So keyword stuffing happens when a brand “stuff” a page with that target keyword in hopes of getting better rankings for a keyword or in other words, overuses the target keyword. Of course, this method is not as popular and common as in the past, But still some brands use this method knowingly or without knowing its inaccuracy and disadvantages to be better seen in search results.
Types of curd staffing
Among the most egregious examples of cured staffing, the following can be mentioned:
• Unnecessary repetition of words and phrases;
• adding words that have nothing to do with their context;
• placing a similar group of keywords in different parts of the text;
• Using irrelevant keywords with the title of the page.
For example, the following paragraph is an example of keyword stuffing written with the goal of ranking better for the phrase “best laptop bag”:
If you are looking for the best laptop bag, look no further. Our brand offers the best laptop bag for business and everyday use. The soft layer built into the strap of this model and a special pocket for the charger make this bag the best laptop bag for travel or school.
As you can see, in the example above, the keyword is overused, and the target phrase is used much more than the “density” recommended for optimal SEO. But what is meant by density?
Keyword Density or “keyword density” in SEO means the percentage of times a keyword is used in the text. This percentage is calculated through the following formula:
Keyword density = number of words in the text ÷ number of repetitions of the keyword in the text
The keyword density in the example above is 13% (there are 52 words in the text, and the keyword is used 4 times). This percentage is higher than the recommended threshold to prevent keyword stuffing. Of course, no exact number can be determined as the appropriate density for the keyword, But the density of 2% is considered the best and most reliable amount to get rid of the cured stuffing trap.
There is another type of keyword stuffing that is hidden from the user’s view. In this method, the target words and phrases are placed on the page in such a way that the user does not notice their existence. This tactic can usually be implemented in two ways:
• Using the same colored text as the background to hide the word from the reader and show it to search engine bots;
• Repeat text in page code, meta tags, alt texts, and comment tags.
Although brands that use either overt or covert types of keyword stuffing believe that they can trick search engines into getting better rankings in search results, in practice both of these methods lead to lower rankings.
Why is keyword stuffing bad for a website?
By viewing and reading the sample paragraph above, you clearly felt one of the most obvious disadvantages of this tactic: “Keyword stuffing creates a bad experience for the user.”
The content of your website should be informative, valuable and useful and encourage the audience to interact or perform a certain action; But when you fill the desired content with the target keyword, it becomes impossible to achieve such goals. In fact, by resorting to this tactic, you’re writing for the search engines instead of your audience. As a result, you don’t provide a proper experience for your users and give your audience give the gift of reading the current content and even future content.
Therefore, your bounce rate will increase and eventually, you will drive potential customers away from your business. In fact, while you fill your article with the target keyword in the hope of attracting more audience, But you will see the picture of the desired result.
Another major drawback of keyword stuffing is rooted in search engine rules and how they deal with such tactics. Search engines prohibit the use of this method and penalize the wrong websites. In other words, if you fill a page with unnecessary keywords, not only will you not have a chance to get better rankings, but your ranking will decrease and you may even be penalized and the page in question will be removed from the search results altogether.
So although it seems tempting to play games and trick search engines, But you should avoid stuffing the page with keywords in any way. Instead, using the following methods, you can enter from the right path and put the right keywords in the most correct way possible on your site pages.
How do you use keywords correctly?
In order to get better rankings for your target keyword, focus on optimizing and using it properly rather than stuffing your page with that keyword. In this regard, you should use the desired word or phrase sufficiently wherever it seems logical, and according to Google’s guidelines, “Focus on producing useful and informative content whose keywords are appropriate and relevant to the context.” They appear.”
In order to avoid keyword stuffing and to create and maintain the standard density of keywords, consider the following points:
– Determine a main keyword for each page
To SEO each page of the site, first choose a target keyword for that page. This word or phrase as the primary keyword of the desired page must be completely related to the topic and content of that page. Additionally, to increase your chances of ranking better in search results, you need to choose a popular keyword that doesn’t have a lot of competition. To choose the right keywords, you can use the useful tools previously mentioned in the article titled “keyword selection tools; Introduction of 11 free and practical tools” we have introduced, use them.
Once you’ve used a target keyword for one page, don’t use it as the primary keyword for other pages. Every page you want to rank in search results must have its own unique target keyword. In this way, you prevent the site pages from competing with each other and clearly define the content and the center of gravity of each page for search engines.
– Write more than 300 words
In order to encourage search engines to rank the page containing the target keyword, it is necessary that the length of the main text of the page is more than 300 words. Search engines are always looking to provide the most relevant and useful information to their users, so the more volume (as well as quality and depth) your content has, the more likely it is that they will rank it better.
– Maintain the appropriate density for the target keyword
To get better rankings, you need to use the target keyword naturally and at reasonable intervals throughout the content. Don’t overuse the keyword and only use it where it feels natural and appropriate. As mentioned earlier, in order to comply with SEO standards and prevent keyword stuffing, limit the keyword density below 2%.
– Use secondary keywords, synonyms and long keywords
A practical way to avoid the need to repeat the same keywords and create keyword stuffing mode, while at the same time showing the importance of the main keyword to search engines, is to use secondary keywords. In order to help rank each page, search engines pay attention to other phrases and sentences on that page; Therefore, in your text, use secondary keywords, i.e., synonym keywords and long-tail types of the target keyword, so that the gravity point of the page is strengthened and more obvious, and it facilitates the ranking of the page and getting better ranks.
In addition, the use of long keywords also helps to identify parts of the text that can be useful in answering users’ questions and provides an opportunity for the content of the page to be placed in the People also ask section.
– Use keywords in different parts of each page
The body text of each page of your site is just one of the places where you should put your target keyword. In order to strengthen SEO, it is necessary to use the keyword you want once in the following sections:
• Sheet title
• At least in one of the subtitles
• Title tag
• Meta description
• At least in the alt tag of one of the tab images
• The first paragraph
• Near the end of the article
Unlike keyword stuffing, by using these keyword optimization tactics, you send positive signals to search engines that will attract attention and rank better for your target keywords.
– Check and strengthen the internal SEO of your site
Even with the above points in mind, it is still not unlikely that you have missed the exploitation of some suitable opportunities to attract the attention of search engines; Therefore, after the publication of new pages and posts, do not assume that the optimization related to SEO is over and periodically plan to evaluate the internal SEO status of the site (On-page SEO). You can also use tools like SEMRUSH and SiteChecker to automatically evaluate your site’s internal SEO status.
Conclusion
Get better rankings by not using keyword stuffing and strengthening your keyword strategy
As you can see, choosing a keyword and repeating it with the hope of getting better rankings in the search results will not only bring you no profit, but it is also an example of keyword stuffing and will have adverse consequences for SEO and page ranking of your site. . Therefore, in order to optimize the content and provide the necessary prerequisites to get better ranks than the competitors, it is necessary to research and use correct and standard strategies.
