What is Keyword Stuffing?

You've probably heard quite a bit of talk about keyword stuffing. Unfortunately, while you may understand that it is a bad thing overall, you may not fully understand exactly what it means or why you should avoid it. Essentially keyword stuffing is using your keywords to the point that they overwhelm any meaning that could be gleaned from reading the content on your web page. Not only is it frowned upon by the search engines but also by the audience you are hoping to attract. The harder your content is to read, the greater the likelihood that your traffic will surf on over to the next page. In other words, keyword stuffing hurts you in more ways than you may realize.

Keyword stuffing is often the result of cramming the keywords into every nook and cranny of your website. To the reader, the content looks like little more than a continuous string of keywords with no real value at all. Of course, this is only one form of keyword stuffing. Unfortunately, it is not the only one.

Other forms of keyword stuffing include cramming the keywords into the title multiple times or into captions for photos, anchor text for links, headings, meta tags, and other tags on your website. Even using the same anchor text for multiple inbound links can be considered keyword stuffing and penalized by some search engines so make sure you are using a wide range of keywords for your article marketing efforts.

The penalties for keyword stuffing can be quite severe and should be avoided at all costs. While the most common penalty is bad enough—losing page ranking with the search engines; there are penalties that are much more severe and can result in your website being banned altogether.

To avoid these penalties it is important to use common sense in your Internet marketing and keyword density errors. It's a good idea to avoid ever going over 5% keyword density though there are many who will argue that 3% is plenty. Another great way to avoid possible penalties is to always write content with the reader in mind. If you write your content in a manner that should appeal to the reader and sprinkle the keywords into the text when they fit organically you will be much less likely to be accused of keyword stuffing than if you were to pack multiple keywords into the article one after another or use them three of four times per paragraph.

While the potential for search engine penalties is bad enough to deter you from keyword stuffing; it shouldn't be your primary motivation. This practice is a big turn off for the visitors to your website who may have purchased the products or services you have to offer if they hadn't been overwhelmed by the content. Be practical and consider what you look for in a website before you buy. More importantly, check out what your competition has to offer and what content they have. Don't take their content, but you can learn a lot from reading it about what does and does not work as far as keyword density is concerned.