Yes, we understand it’s only May, but …
… don’t overuse your keywords, it could make Google angry!
Overuse of a keyword phrase is something you want to avoid. This is referred to as “stuffing,” and although it’s great on Thanksgiving, it’s best to avoid stuffing altogether on your website and blog.
Why? Because if you get caught stuffing keywords into your pages, you could get a penalty from Google, and it’s one of the factors that can land you in what we at Cuppa SEO call, “the black hole of Google Panda.”
In a nutshell, Panda is part of the algorithm Google uses to assess the website authority and SEO value of each page of your website, and your website as a whole. Best to stay on Panda’s good side and avoid the black hole — so don’t stuff!
Check out this fun one-minute video about stuffing, starring our fearless leader’s kids!
To sum up, keyword stuffing is exactly what it sounds like — jamming the same keyword or keyword phrase into your content as often as possible, just like the example the kids provide in their video.
Reasons to avoid keyword stuffing are:
- It has the potential to land you in the black hole of Google Panda. In non-tech terms, this means the page you stuff — and possibly your entire website — may never be found again in search engine results. Stuffing is bad for SEO, and just as importantly…
- Even if Google doesn’t hit you with a heavy penalty, your readers will not appreciate this tactic, and they very likely won’t come back. In other words, it’s a bad user experience. There’s a good chance you’ve seen writing like this on somebody’s website: “Our dentist will take very good care of you. Our dentist is a pain-free dentist, so make an appointment with the dentist today!” Yuck.
Now imagine this, paragraph after paragraph, page after page, and you can see why Google would take a site like this and hide it from view.
There was a time, back in the wild west of the internet, where adding a bunch of the same keywords could elevate a page in search engine results. Google quickly said “no way!” to this tactic, labeling it black hat SEO for good reason.
A better strategy is to write rich, relevant content that connects with customers, solves a problem, offers insightful info, or highlights a benefit you offer that can help with a pain point.
In summation, leave the stuffing for Thanksgiving. It has no place on your website or blog.
This article was gleaned from Joey’s book, A Holistic Guide to Online Marketing, which is chock-full of tips and marketing strategies to help you grow your business. Learn more about the book.