By Alan Graner
When web crawlers scour the web looking for new pages to add to their search engine indexes, they search for keywords like “restaurant” or “computer repair” or “oncology.” Content with these terms are than listed in the Google search results.
In theory, the more times your content mentions these keywords, the higher your search ranking. This is keyword stuffing.
It usually results in unreadable sentences such as: “In the world of widget manufacturing, no one manufactures more widgets than Acme widget manufacturing, the leading widget manufacturer in the state.”
So even if keyword stuffing works (and it doesn’t), people won’t read your content because it sucks.
Google isn’t stupid
Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam team, was quoted as saying, “It doesn’t really help you to keep repeating that keyword over and over and over again. [A]t some point we might view that as keyword stuffing and then the page would actually do less well, not as well as just a moderate number of mentions of a particular piece of text.” http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/news/2348606/matt-cutts-on-how-google-ranks-pages-that-dont-get-many-links#
In short, keyword-stuffed content is penalized by lowering its page ranking.
Google search rankings are now based more on whether your content is relevant and valuable to readers.
This is good news for copywriters because what you say is once again more important than how many times you say it.
If you speak directly to your main target audience, write clearly and concisely, the keywords will fall naturally into place and your copy will be eminently readable.
Isn’t that what content is really all about?
What has been your experience with keyword stuffing?
Image: Christophe Meneboeuf via Wikipedia
Alan Graner is Chief Creative Officer at Daly-Swartz Public Relations, an Orange County, CA business marketing content and distribution firm. For content that makes you stick out from the crowd, email Jeffrey Swartz at jeffreyswartz@dsprel.com. Or visit www.dsprel.com.