What Is Keyword Stuffing?
Keyword stuffing is just what it sounds like; a website stuffs its content with a particular keyword. This oftentimes feels unnatural to read because a word is repeated too many times; it’s out of context and not relevant to the webpage. Another example of keyword stuffing that websites sometimes do is write a keyword multiple times on a webpage, but they make the text color the same color as the background to hide it from users. Websites that do this are hoping that their page/website will rank higher for that particular keyword on a search engine results page when in reality, this can actually negatively affect your website’s search rankings.
How Keyword Stuffing Can Negatively Impact Your Website
Keyword stuffing is considered a Blackhat SEO practice. Search engine crawlers are able to pick up on web pages that keyword stuff and flag them. Google will then penalize these websites by lowering their rankings or removing your website altogether from a search engine results page. To learn more about blackhat SEO and other practices you should avoid, click here.
Keyword stuffing will also drive away user traffic to your website. When websites keyword stuff, the content is confusing, hard to read, and not useful for your website users. Users can become annoyed reading your content and resort to other web pages that do have user-friendly content.
How to Properly Use Keywords
- Page Title- You should put one keyword in your page title.
- Meta Description- No more than two keywords in your meta description
- Sub Heading- One keyword per subheading
- Image- When you have an image on a webpage, it is important to write alt text that describes what the image shows. If it is possible, adding a keyword into that alt text is a good idea.
- Content- While you write content for your website, write it naturally and place your keyword in when it makes sense. To avoid overusing a keyword and making your content sound unnatural, use variations or synonyms of that particular word or phrase.
Contact Boston Web Marketing for More SEO Tips
For more tips and strategies on how to improve your website’s rankings, please contact Boston Web Marketing. Our team of professionals has expertise in all areas of digital marketing, including SEO, social media, email marketing, website design, and paid advertising. Learn more about how Boston Web Marketing can help your business today!