What Is Keyword Stuffing? How To Avoid It In Your Online Store
Have you heard of the term keyword stuffing? The answer is probably no since it is a term that became popular in the 1990s. This technique consists of excessive use of keywords in the same text, which at that time was thought to work.
Due to changes in Google’s algorithms, this technique has become obsolete, and currently resorting to it can seriously damage the positioning of your website.
Today, positioning places users at the center of eCommerce marketing. Therefore, using keyword stuffing is considered a frequently penalized black hat SEO practice.
By using this technique of repeating the keywords throughout the content, it was intended to give greater relevance to those words, and that, therefore, the keyword stuffing served to position.
However, as we have said, nowadays it is nothing more than a black hat SEO, cataloged as doubtful legality by Google.
Current Google policies are intended to serve users’ search intent. In this sense, it is necessary to carry out a study of the keywords to satisfy the needs of the users and avoid the practice of keyword stuffing.
Remember that using this technique causes rejection in users and Google because the message is not natural. In this sense, you should not write for bots, but for people.
Keyword Stuffing In Your ECommerce
If you have practiced keyword stuffing in your online store, you have surely been penalized.
It is not necessary that they notify you in writing, you will simply notice it in the decrease in visit volume of your website. That is why performing frequent analytics on your website’s metrics is an excellent practice.
Through the analytics, you will be able to notice any modification in the visits to your website.
If you want to confirm it, you can search for the words that you wanted to position with this technique, and you will discover that you will not have results.
Google penalties for using this black hat keyword stuffing technique only affect the page on which you have used this technique, without having repercussions on the rest of the pages, which in all, is not so bad.
However, if you manage to position a keyword, among the top 5 of the SERPs, the moment a user enters the web and recognizes that every two words you have stuffed the keyword, they will surely leave your page.
How To Avoid Sanctions In My ECommerce
Although the penalties for this concept are very frequent, there are some good SEO practices that you can use in the files of your products without being penalized. Although it seems strange, it is possible to do keyword stuffing positively.
First, consider that the focus of your marketing and Best SEO strategy should be the user, who is the one receiving the content. Therefore, if you want to use a keyword, you can use the H2 using the main or long-tail keyword.
Use the long tails and repeat the word intelligently. In this way, it would make the right sense and be user-oriented.
You can also go to the long tail by internal linking. Don’t forget to think about the user. Each time you write something on your site, it must respond to a user request.
You must take into account some fundamental aspects to avoid keyword stuffing:
- Singular And Plural: For Google, there is no difference between the singular and the plural of a word. So if you use “shoe” and “sneakers” the platform will understand it as repeating the word.
- Use Synonyms: Enrich the vocabulary using synonyms of your keyword, which will also allow you to position several words.
- Internal Links: Google interprets internal links as rich content.
- Product Sheets With Good Content: Generates product sheets with valuable, useful, and interesting content that meets the needs of users or answers their questions.
- Keyword Density: You can repeat the keyword between 2 to 5% of the total content.
Write Suitable Content For Your ECommerce
When writing content for the product sheets of your eCommerce, it is recommended that you use a greater length of words to explain the characteristics and qualities of the products.
It is also advisable to establish a keyword that will allow the positioning in the search engines.
The keyword can be included several times in the text, without exceeding 3% of the total content, logically and naturally. Also, use it in the ALT tags of the images and their name. As for the subcategories, use a logical order in your store tree.
Tools To Check Keyword Stuffing
Some tools could help you detect the density of keywords. Among the most popular tools we can mention:
- SEO Quake: Determine the number of times the keyword is repeated and its percentage. It is a Google Chrome extension that you can download from the Play Store.
- Visiospark: This free app allows you to enter the URL of your store to perform an SEO audit regarding keyword stuffing.
- Keyword Density Checker: It is similar to Visiospark. It offers the density in the percentage of the keywords used in the content.
For best results, it is advisable to analyze each of the pages on your website, since each one will refer to a word and will have a different extension.
Start analyzing the best sellers, determine the percentage of the keyword, and optimize it.
You can also ask the percentage of keyword stuffing by people who are experts at on-page optimization of websites.
When evaluating the results, if the density percentage is less than 1%, you can increase the repetitions of your keyword by using long tails.
For example, Nike Air Max (keyword), the long tails that you can use would be Nike Air Max 90 for adults, Nike Air Max 90 black, etc.
In case you detect that the percentage is higher than 4%, delete some. Dubai digital marketing agency recommended percentage of the density of a word is 3%. However, it is convenient to analyze the competition.
Conclusion
The continuous changes in Google’s algorithms, as well as in the artificial intelligence of search engines, give greater importance to avoiding keyword stuffing practices and directing content to satisfy users.
In this sense, it is recommended that you use common sense, good SEO practices, using original content, and prioritize customer service.
You should also avoid those practices that can cause you sanctions or that are considered to be of doubtful legality.
It is necessary to remember that, once Google penalizes your page, it is difficult to recover the positioning.