Keywords are the center of all SEO work. Without a keyword to target, you’re just throwing darts at the board while blindfolded. While you may hit something good, your chances are incredibly slim, and you might poke someone’s eye out instead. Keyword stuffing is almost the opposite of this problem. It’s where you throw all the darts at one dart board, and they all knock each other to the floor.
Keyword stuffing is using keywords so many times that the search engines notice that you’re just trying to get their attention. It’s like screaming “pick me, pick me!” in gym class. When you know your keyword but use it too much, strategies that should help your SEO will hurt it instead.
What Happens If You Are Keyword Stuffing?
Google, Bing, and other search engines are all well-crafted, which means they’re good at finding relevant content for their users. When every site is trying to take the top spot for your online search results, those efforts are under intense scrutiny. If you are keyword stuffing, the search engines will notice, and they will consider your web page or web post irrelevant to their users. They can only make their profit by providing search results that users will click on. They don’t want to send users somewhere that’s not showing quality content.
Search engines will also notice if it’s just a single or few pages and posts with keyword stuffing problems, or if it’s most of them. If most of your web pages or posts have this problem, your site’s SEO rankings across the board will drop.
When Are You Keyword Stuffing Your Content?
The best way to keep your keyword count in control is to have around 1 to 2 mentions per 200 words. Keep that number in mind, and place the keywords in key spots, like your first paragraph and your headings, and you’ll be fine.
How Do You Reduce Your Keyword Mentions?
If your keyword naturally goes into a sentence, it’s okay to go a bit over the recommended limit. You’re not going to lose SEO if you go up to 3 to 5 keyword mentions per 200 words if you have a 750 to 1,250-word web page or blog post. This is dangerously close to keyword stuffing, so you should still be careful.
If you find that you really can’t stop using your keyword in your content, research it and find synonyms. Go through your content, and replace the second and/or third mentions of your keyword in a paragraph with the synonym. This is a simple way to reduce your keyword stuffing and potentially capture a second keyword.
When Are You Keyword Stuffing Your Metas?
Metas refers to your meta titles and your meta descriptions. These are important parts of every web page and post. When someone searches for one of your keywords and sees your web page, they see your meta title with the description underneath. But, if your meta titles and meta descriptions don’t have your keyword, they may not show up in online search results. If you repeat your keyword too many times, they also may not show up.
How Many Keyword Mentions Go Into Your Metas?
For both meta titles and meta descriptions, your keyword should only be mentioned once. A meta title shouldn’t be longer than 50 to 60 characters, and meta descriptions should be 140 to 160 characters.
There’s not enough room for two keyword mentions in either space, so avoid it entirely. This will not only sound weird if someone reads it but also immediately signal to Google and other search engines that you’re keyword stuffing.
Talk to Content Writers Who Won’t Stuff Keywords
Creating quality content for your web pages and posts is hard enough. Focusing on quality keywords is even harder. Making sure that you aren’t mentioning your keyword too much is just another challenge on top of that. Getting your website’s SEO to a good place takes time you may not have as you run a business. Talk to marketing professionals who can do it for you.
ENX2 Marketing has a team of experienced content writers who know how to write content for multiple industries. We’re especially experienced in writing for many different law practices. If you need experts who will create content that will boost your SEO instead of hurting it, contact the team at ENX2 Marketing.