Hey, Thanksgiving’s right around the corner, so here’s my take on how to stuff a turkey…
OK, just kidding. 😊
This post is about stuffing, however– only it’s keyword stuffing.
Keyword stuffing’s a no-no. It’s a somewhat dated SEO technique for manipulating search engines, especially the big guy: Google.
Basic idea: you stuff your post with all the words people might use to find what your selling.
Here’s a funny example:
Are you looking for cheap running shoes? If you’re looking for cheap running shoes, look no further. Our cheap running shoes website is the best place to order your new cheap running shoes. Feel free to check out our selection of cheap running shoes from our cheap running shoes selection below.
Ten or fifteen years ago, you could get away with doing that– and lots of people did. Not anymore.
Because Google got wise. Their search algorithm now recognizes that kind of thing for what it is: spam. A cheap trick to drive people to a site to make a sale.
Nowadays Google penalizes keyword stuffing. Instead of being more likely to pop up in search results, you’re a lot less likely.
Bottom line: if you sell a product or service, focus on writing good helpful content that people will actually want to read.
Keywords are still important because you want your content to be found.
WordPress allows me to categorize my posts, and I always choose these three categories: design, illustration, humor.
I can also choose suitable tags (for this post I’ll be choosing “SEO” and “blogging,” among others).
Keywords are only bad if you stuff them into your post in an unnatural way.
Focus on writing good helpful content and you’ll be using keywords in a natural way that fits the context– and that will score points with Google’s search engine.
There’s a lot more to search engine optimization (SEO) than keywords, and again, SEO is important because you want your content to be found.
There’s an ongoing debate among marketers and content creators: when you write a post, which is more important: content strategy or SEO strategy?
