How to use keywords effectively and avoid harming your reputation

We talk about keywords a lot. After working out who your website is for, we in the SEO world turn our attention to keywords. They help guide potential website visitors to our pages. We’re told by SEO experts again (and again) to use keywords in our content, and in the behind the scenes data. So, the more keywords the better, right? Wrong.

There’s such a thing as too much of a good thing. And in this instance, it’s called keyword stuffing. 

What is keyword stuffing?  

There are two types of keyword stuffing — visible and invisible:

1. Visible keyword stuffing: 

• Repeating the same keywords and phrases in the written content of your website again and again.

• Repeating keywords that are not relevant to your website. They might be popular keywords that lots of people search for, but they have nothing to do with the topic of your site. 

2. Invisible keyword stuffing: 

Search engines are clever enough to read the keywords repeated in the non-visible parts of your website: 

• Some websites hide text on their pages by using a font the same colour as the background. Website users won’t notice the repeated words, but search engines will. 

• Repetition of words and phrases in your alt text — the text that is used to describe visual content on your website like images 

• Hiding repeated keywords in the code of your website.

Why is keyword stuffing bad?

1. It affects the experience of your website users 

If your website content is stuffed with repeating keywords, it shows your audience that you care more about rankings in search engines than you do their experience using your site. 

2. Your website could end up losing users

And nobody wants that.

3. Keyword stuffing can cause Google to penalise your site 

Search engines can tell if you are keyword stuffing on your website. Google could even choose to remove your site from its search engine results page entirely. 

How can you avoid keyword stuffing and still use keywords? 

There’s obviously a balance that needs to be struck between using the same keywords throughout a website and not over using them. 

We don’t want you to stop using keywords — but we do want to help you make sure you’re using them correctly, to make the most of them: 

Ask yourself, are these keywords relevant?

When you are writing content for your website, check that the content is original and helpful? 

Are the keywords you’re using relevant to the topic your website is about? Or, are you trying to shoehorn extra words in to make sure you hit as many search topics as possible? Be authentic. Users notice when you’re being fake. 

Believe in yourself

If you’ve got relevant and interesting content you don’t need to repeat yourself. You need to stick to what you know and keep creating interesting stuff that people want to engage with. 

Overloading your content with certain words may be a quick fix, but it is more likely to harm your reputation and brand. 

Don’t be afraid of keywords! 

Don’t stop using key phrases or words — but choose them carefully. Just because you’ve got a list of words and phrases to use doesn’t mean you need to use them all. Take time to work out which Keywords are the most useful and effective.

We can help you with this. If you want to know more, conduct some research or even start a helpful list from scratch — we’re here to help.