What Is Keyword Stuffing?
Keyword stuffing, often considered an unethical SEO practice, entails inserting an unnecessarily large number of keywords into metatags or web pages, in a bid to raise the website’s search engine ranking and increase traffic in the process.
How To Check Keyword Stuffing?
Although you can find stuffed keywords by simply reading through the content, here is a formula on how to check overused keyphrases within a web page, featuring a given number of words.
*Keyword Density = (Number of keyword occurrences/ Number of words in the content) 100**
Say you have 1000 words of web content and a keyphrase that has been used 10 times, the density of that keyphrase will be:
*(10/1000) 100 = 1%**
Alternatively, you can use a keyword stuffing checker that allows you to copy-paste your content onto the platform and generate an AI report on keyword density.
What Is Keyword Stuffing Example?
Stuffed keywords are often irrelevant and overused, usually intentionally or unknowingly. Here are some examples to put it into better perspective:
- Phone number lists that don’t add value to the site’s visitors;
- Text blocks with cities and states that an eCommerce site wants to rank in;
- Repeated phrases all over the text that sound unnatural.
Why Keyword Stuffing Is Bad
Keyword stuffing isn’t good for business no matter how good you are at it. In fact, search engines, such as Google have devised ways of detecting web content with overused keyphrases, and promise to issue fine penalties for the same. With that in mind, here is why you should avoid unnecessary keyphrases on your eCommerce site:
- Drives away visitors by not recommending your site to consumers in the first place;
- Makes web content sound repetitive; hence may not offer any value to users;
- Spam wordings hurt the credibility of your eCommerce store;
- Downplays your brand and domain authority.