It May Be Seemingly Intuitive, but Still…
While it may be close to the mind that stuffing your content with keywords is bad, the practice is heavily misguided in that regard. And why wouldn’t that be true? If search engines are designed to use keywords as input and show search results most relevant to them, it is natural to ask yourself: “Why not cram my content with those keywords as much as possible?” To answer you simply — because you will be doing more harm than good, and this blog is here to explain things in more detail so we can clear up this popular misconception. And, no, Winnie the Pooh was not right, and more is not always better.
They Are Called Keywords for a Reason
If we take a step back from the topic and just take a look at the word itself, it is all there. They are called “keywords” for a reason. They need to serve as the “key” to your “words.” The guiding light which search engines use to connect your content to users. Stuffing every line of your text with keywords is like having a door with a hundred keys instead of a door with just one or two. Which door would look better and more secure to you? We thought so, too. And most importantly, search engines think so, too!
What Is It?
“Keyword stuffing” refers to the practice of repeating keywords an abnormal amount of times in the content of a webpage in an attempt to manipulate a site’s ranking in search results.
What Keyword Stuffing Can Lead To
In the dawn of SEO times, keyword stuffing used to be a fairly successful practice that allowed marketers to take advantage of the not yet developed and “smartened” search engines. However, engines gradually wised up to this bad practice and began penalizing websites that did it. So, if you don’t want to have your content temporarily banned or even completely removed from search listings, you will stay away from such keyword stuffing endeavors.
A Little Thing Called “Keyword Density”
Keyword density is the number of times a certain keyword appears in your content divided by the number of total words in that copy. There is no particular magic number to aim for, but the best practice is to stay within the 2% mark.
Managing your keyword usage may sound like a lot of work, and is the reason why many businesses today turn to the professionals. 411 Locals is an SEO company that has long proven its team can lead any business to online success. Keep that in mind in case you want professional help!
Check back with us next week when we continue with Part 2 of this blog and discuss the ways to use keywords responsibly and with measure!