Keyword Stuffing: There’s a Better Way to Boost Your Rankings

When it comes to content marketing, there are a lot of misconceptions floating around the web. If you search for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tips, you’ll find loads of advice – and a lot of it isn’t helpful or correct. One of the most popular myths published time and time again involves “keyword stuffing.” If you’re not familiar with the term, keyword stuffing is exactly what it sounds like: In an attempt to boost your search engine rankings, you “stuff” your post full of keywords, hoping the bots will mark your content as relevant.

There are a two problems with this method. For starters, it’s annoying to readers. No one wants to read a spammy post, even if you include lots of helpful information. The other, possibly bigger, problem is that it doesn’t work. Search engines look at a lot of different aspects of a webpage to calculate the usefulness of its content. Once upon a time, they may have gone by keyword density alone (though even this has never been proven); in today’s world, keyword density just isn’t enough on its own. In fact, it may get your page marked as spam, which pushes you to the bottom of the rankings.

So, what should you do instead? Here are some proven methods that actually work.

Keywords That Flow Organically

It’s important to note that keywords are important for your SEO rankings, but search engines can tell when you’re stuffing and when your keywords are actually relevant. To practice good SEO tactics, you’ll need to include keywords organically throughout your post. In other words, use keywords when they make sense, but don’t overuse them. If you need an example of keyword stuffing, Google includes some good ones in their quality guidelines.

Useful Content

As always, the absolute best tip for great content marketing is the same as always: Write useful content. Content marketing is the same as any other type of marketing; it’s only as good as the product you’re selling. You can drive thousands of readers to your page, but what will they do if the content is bad? They’ll close the page and forget it ever existed. If the content is good, though, they’ll read it, save it for later, and maybe even share it with others. On top of that, Google actually states that they strive to find “high-quality” sites for their search results. They’re actively looking for useful content, so that’s what you should be providing.

A final note on this method: Don’t use duplicate material, even if it’s great quality. Google penalizes sites with duplicate content bumping you to the bottom of search results.

Killer Titles

Now that you have useful content with organic keywords, the final step is creating a killer title. Please note that the title is not necessarily the same as the main heading, though those are important, too. The page title actually appears first on search results, and it’s a clickable link. It also appears on the tab that opens after the link is clicked. You may sometimes hear it called a “meta title.”

Often, your page title actually is the same as the main header of your content, but it doesn’t have to be. You may have a post with an H1 header called “5 Ways to Boost Your Search Engine Rankings.” This could be the best default page title, as well – but it’s usually not. In most cases, it’s better to change the title so you grab a wider audience on search results. For example, it could be “Boost Your Search Engine Rankings | Content Marketing in Denver” so you draw in local customers.

If you’re looking for more practical digital marketing tips, subscribe to our email list. We regularly post content marketing strategies that will help you rank highly in SEO; not outdated techniques like keyword stuffing and spam.