Keyword stuffing is the practice of repetitively using the same SEO keywords or numbers on a webpage. It is meant to trick the search engines into thinking a page is relevant for a certain keyword. You should always avoid using the same keywords too frequently on your site.
Avoid Keyword Stuffing to Help Your SEO Efforts
Keyword stuffing is considered a black hat SEO technique; it is meant to manipulate the search engines’ algorithms in favor of a website ranking higher. Using the same keyword frequently can help your rankings temporarily; however, it is extremely likely to cause a Google penalty. A Google penalty will hurt your site’s overall rankings for a long period of time.
How to avoid keyword stuffing?
As a basic rule, try to place your SEO keywords where they fall naturally into the content. Creating high-quality, rich content is the best way to avoid keyword stuffing. Another great way to avoid this downfall is by using synonyms throughout the content.
Great examples of keyword stuffing given by Google:
- lists of phone numbers without substantial added value
- blocks of text listing cities and states a web page is trying to rank for
- repeating the same words or phrases so often that it sounds unnatural.
- For example: We sell custom cigar humidors. Our custom cigar humidors are handmade. If you’re thinking of buying a custom cigar humidor, please contact our custom cigar humidor specialists at custom.cigar.humidors@example.com.
As you can see in the examples above, the keyword placement for “custom cigar humidors” does not look natural. It delivers a poor user experience. You should always build a webpage for people, not search engines.
Another way that websites sometimes try to hide their bloated keyword use is by stuffing the keywords so that they are not visible on the page at all. They may hide white font on a white background, or they will try stuffing the ALT attributes and meta tags; they may even play with the CSS styling to hide it. This may make it look natural to a human, but it’s unnatural to a search engine. It is highly recommended to not do this since you will get caught and get hit with a Google penalty.
You should always avoid manipulation in SEO, as it will do more harm than good in the long run.