Difference between Keyword Stuffing and Placement?

SEO a lot has changed significantly over the years. A Keyword is an essential building block of any successful SEO strategy. Keywords help your website to rank higher on search engine result pages. Days are gone of keyword stuffing to get on the page for Google or other search engines. Today’s SEO practice is keyword targeting rather than keyword stuffing.

Let’s understand the distinction between these two trends which can either make or break your SEO strategy.

Keyword stuffing

Keyword stuffing is a search engine optimization technique in which keyword or phrases are plugging into your website’s header, footer, Meta tag, body, and anywhere else where you could put them.

Some SEOs use this strategy to rank their website top in the search engines. Because more the search engine saw that keyword or phrase in your site, the more likely it will rank you higher in the search engine.

This strategy was an effective strategy for quite some time. But the good news is that Google is becoming smarter day by day. Websites that use keyword stuffing as a primary strategy, Google penalizes that websites fast. Because keyword stuffing comes under Black Hat SEO and Google doesn’t allow their users to use this technique.

Unfortunately, most of the SEOs still use keyword stuffing to rank their website in search engines but if the site that does get penalized by Google then it is impossible for them to rank.

Types of keyword stuffing include:

1. Repeating words unnecessarily.
2. Using those words which are out of your context.
3. Inserting the same keywords in a block.
4. Using those keywords that are not relevant to our context.

These are some types of keyword stuffing which are done by most of the SEO expert to rank their website. But it is not a good tactic to rank any website. It comes in Black hat SEO. Google penalize that website very fast. So we must avoid these kinds of keyword stuffing.

A keyword stuffing example would be a page which is trying to rank for the term "best travel bag" and using the following copy.

"If you are looking for the best travel bag, look no further. This best travel bag would help you with a business tour and also for carrying a laptop. This best travel bag contains a place to put the charger. It would preferable by students."

In the above image, the copy goes overboard with the use of the same keyword. The term "best travel bag" used more than the suggested term that increases the keyword density.

What is Keyword Density?

Keyword density is measured by the total number of words divided by the total number of keywords appeared in the copy.

Keyword density = (Number of words in copy)/ (Number of times keyword appears in the copy)

In the above example, keyword density is 14% (there are 42 words, and the keyword appears 3 times). The percentage here is more than the suggested keyword stuffing percentage. There are no exact criteria of proper keyword density but the best practice is to give 2% keyword density.

There is also different kind of keyword stuffing which is not visible by the audience. These tactics are used in terms that are hidden by readers.

• Using the same text color as a background color. (In this, the text is hidden by the readers but not hidden by the search engine crawlers.)
• Repeating text in alt tags, Meta tags, title tag and page’s code.

While these both types of keyword stuffing may lead the organization to think that they can give this trick and get higher rank in search results. But these tactics may lead to occur black hat seo and they may get lower rank in the result or also they may get penalized. So we should avoid these tactics.

Why Keyword Stuffing is bad for Your Website?

By reading the above examples now you may have understood why keyword stuffing is a bad tactic. It may lead to an awful experience for the user.

Your website purpose should be educated, serve and engage your readers. Keyword stuffing should not be your aim. But once you start writing a blog, then you stuff your pages with keywords. You are unable to fulfill the main purpose which is to educate a reader not stuffing the keywords. You stop writing for readers but you start writing for search engine. They don’t get knowledge from that website for which they come. So this creates a poor experience for readers. In the result, your website bounce rate is increased and your potential customer gets away from your website. it’s not a good thing for any website.

While you may think that filling keywords in your blog may increase traffic towards your blog but actually it could do the opposite. So do not think that keyword stuffing into your blog is a good idea at all.

Keyword stuffing is widely condemned by search engines because if you put keyword unnecessary in your content then it gets penalized by search engines. Even your page can be removed from the search engine result pages (SERPs). If you fill your page with needless keywords then it decreases the chance to get higher rank in search results. Rather than getting a higher rank in search result pages, you may be penalized. So you have to be careful whenever using keywords on your page. You should write for your readers, not for the search engine crawlers.

So, how websites can actually use this keyword?

Keyword Placement or Targeting

Best practices for SEO today is keyword placement or keyword targeting. Like keyword stuffing, keyword placement includes keywords in Meta description, page title, body text, image, URL, and links, etc. but the main difference between keyword stuffing and keyword targeting is that targeting mainly focuses on user experience. It uses the keyword in a way that makes any sense rather than they fit keywords wherever they want.

Keywords targeting in the area like heading and title is still an important factor. But forcing keywords in every single sentence and in front of the headlines create the bad user experience.

Additionally, search engines have become so advanced so that repetitions of a keyword can harm your site. You should use keyword or phrase in your content like that where the user can’t say that you are just trying to rank your site in search engine. That keyword must have some sense. Using the same keywords again and again, you should use synonyms, semantic topics that create better read to the user and also recognized as relevant by the search engines.

Best Keyword placement or Targeting method for better SEO1.Use Primary Keyword in the Blog Title

Apart from the content, placing a primary keyword on your blog title plays a major role in seo. Without placing the primary keyword in your title you cannot rank well in search engine result pages. So you must use your targeted keyword in your blog title.

2. Use Headings tags with Primary Keyword

After blog title heading tag plays a crucial role in ranking. If you optimize your heading tags by using primary keywords so you can do well in search engine result pages. So you must use your primary keyword in your heading tag.

3. Use Primary Keyword as Bold or Italic in Blog Post

You should use your primary keyword in your blog post after every 6 lines. You should put your keyword in your blog post as bold or italic. It means you are telling to search engine that these words have importance than other words. Then the search engine gives most importance to these words. But again you have to take care of keyword stuffing. You do not have to focus only on keyword stuffing but you also have to take care of your readers. You are writing for your readers, not for crawlers.

4.Length of The Article or Keyword Density effect on Blog Performance

Again you have to take care of the length of the article. Your article must be at least 500 words. Don’t forget to place targeted keyword 3 times for every 100 words. You don’t have to include keywords just for sake including. It must be looking real for search engine crawler and also for blog visitors.

5. Blog Post Permalink Should Contain Primary Keyword

By default, the permalink will choose the blog title excluding some stop words. But if you are using blogger platform then you will have to add the primary keyword into your blog post permalink. As search engines give more importance to the words that use in the blog post URL.

6.Use Primary Keyword in the First and Last Sentence of the Post

You should use the primary keyword naturally in the first and last paragraph of your blog post. The search engine gives more weight to the first and last paragraph of the blog post. So you should add the primary keyword in your blog post in a natural way to boost search engine rankings.

7. Add Alt and Meta Tags for Image in Blog Post

If you use targeted keywords in alt and Meta tags then it would be an added advantage in terms of seo, because you can generate a decent amount of traffic from image search engine.