One of the most common SEO issues we come across with a lot of new clients is the problem of keyword stuffing. Before Google’s Panda & Penguin updates in 2011 & 2012, respectively, keyword stuffing was a very commonplace tactic digital marketers used to artificially inflate their website’s rankings in the search engine results. Today, it has no place in marketing and is actually detrimental to your website’s SEO. This is a claim that has been confirmed by Google itself.
Unreadable = Unprofessional = Poor SEO
So what do we mean by keyword stuffing? Let’s take the following sentence as an example:
We offer financial services in and around the Cambridge area. Our professional financial services have earned us a 5* rating on Trustpilot, with many customers claiming how our financial services have helped make dealing with company finances easier and pain free. Contact us for more details of our high-quality financial services.
Terrible, right? It’s surprising the number of websites that still have copy like this, yet complain about poor SEO and end up looking at their competitors’ website code for answers instead of reviewing and updating the content on their website. However, by not falling into this trap you can gain the advantage over your competitors and work to outrank them.
Write It Naturally, Read It Naturally
The best way to approach content writing is to not focus on keyword quantities but, instead, to just focus on writing a high quality, readable article that flows naturally and provides value to its reader.
This article is a good example; I’ve barely used the target keyword ‘keyword stuffing’, yet Google is likely to recognise it as its subject thanks to Google’s LSI system (Latent Semantic Indexing: checking the page for words similar to each other to build a picture of what it is about). If you know your subject and write a well-informed, interesting article, keywords will be included naturally and, as a result, deliver value to your audience, helping you rank better in the search engine results.
Of course, it is important to have a keyword to target, but the problem comes when keywords are treated more as a word to be included at certain intervals instead of indicators of the subject.
Key Takeaways
- Research keywords for subjects to write about, not as a word to be included at certain intervals.
- Know your subject and write a high-quality article that your audience will love. Google will reward you.
- Content is king! Revise your website’s content ASAP and ask yourself ‘does this read naturally?’ and ‘does this provide value to my audience?’.