What is keyword stuffing?
In its spam policies, Google describes keyword stuffing as filling a web page with keywords or numbers in an attempt to manipulate rankings in Google Search.
The idea dates back to the early days of search engines: if you used a keyword particularly often, you were more likely to be found for it. Today, search engines recognise topics, synonyms and context. Repetition alone no longer helps; it does harm.
Typical examples
Google gives three examples in its policies:
- Lists of phone numbers without substantial added value for visitors.
- Blocks of text listing cities and regions a page is trying to rank for, without real content about those places.
- Repeated words and phrases that occur so often that the text sounds unnatural.
Practice adds further forms: keywords in hidden text or in the background colour, long keyword lists in the footer, overloaded alt texts and titles that consist only of strung-together search terms. Hidden text is a separate violation under the policies.
Why does keyword stuffing do harm?
Google detects violations of its spam policies with automated systems and, where needed, through human review that can result in a manual action. Affected pages or entire websites then rank lower or no longer appear in the results at all.
The effect on the people reading the text is just as important. An overloaded text looks untrustworthy. Prospects leave instead of enquiring or buying, and a high bounce rate is often the result.
Recognising keyword stuffing
Three simple checks help:
- Read it aloud: does a sentence sound the way you would say it to a customer? If not, the keyword is used too often or in the wrong place.
- Measure keyword density: our keyword density calculator shows how often a term occurs relative to the length of the text. There is no ideal number, but conspicuously high values are a warning sign.
- Check the source code: hidden text, overloaded alt texts and titles only show up in the source code or in a crawl.
How to work keywords in naturally
- Topic, not word: cover the questions people have about the topic. Synonyms and related terms then follow naturally.
- Use the important places: the main keyword belongs in the page title, the main heading and the introduction, as long as it fits naturally there.
- One page, one topic: rather than overloading one page for many terms, create a separate, suitable page for each topic. This also avoids cannibalisation.
- Write for people: a text has to convince buyers and prospects. Search engines reward content that does exactly that.
A keyword analysis shows which terms a page should cover.
Do you want your texts to be found and still be convincing? Then get in touch with us or read more about our content marketing!
