The phrase “keyword stuffing” is one that has been around since the early days of search engine optimization (SEO). Today, it describes a “shady” technique website owners use to manipulate the search ranking for their site for a certain keyword or set of keywords.

Are you still unsure exactly what this means? Don’t worry, you aren’t alone. Put simply, if you have ever visited a website that shows a list of word or phrases that have very little or no relevance to the content on the website, then you have experienced keyword stuffing.

The Problem with Keyword Stuffing 

While keyword stuffing looks horrible, it also results in a poor user experience. Some website owners take this shady practice a step further by trying to hide or disguise their stuffed keywords. They can do this by using white text on a white background or hide the text with CSS positioning or styling. Search engines still see the keywords, which is why web owners do this. However, thanks to the ongoing effort of search engines to fight this type of action many sites are being penalized for any degree of keyword stuffing.

How to Avoid Keyword Stuffing 

The easiest way to avoid cases of keyword stuffing is to create content that is engaging and interesting for the end user and which also reads naturally. While you need to feature keywords in the content, they should always be included in context. While opinions related to keyword density vary, a rule to use is to try and avoid using keywords too often or ones that are irrelevant. It is also a good idea to use long tail keywords, which will help prevent cases of repetition.

If you are unsure of how often you should use a certain word, consider this. If you were reading copy about a cigar, how often is the word cigar really needed and when does it seem repetitive? If you think the copy is using a word too much, find synonyms or eliminate it altogether in some instances. This will help you create copy that is beneficial to the search engines, while still getting your point across to visitors.