Keyword Stuffing

Introduction

Keyword Stuffing is a "Black Hat" Internet Marketing technique (often regarded as deceptive and unethical) that is used to artifically boost a page's ranking in search engines for particular keywords and phrases. An excessive amount of core keywords are placed within the webpage's content and/or meta tags and often these keywords are hidden so that they are invisible to vistors browsing the website. Sometimes inserted keywords bear no or little resemblence to the content on a page.

The following methods are used to hide keywords within the HTML:

• Text is set to the same colour as the background
• Text is placed within Meta Tags
• Text is placed within hidden fields (input type = "hidden")
• Text is placed inside comments
• Text is placed inside Alt tags
• CSS "Z" positioning is used to place text "behind" an image
• CSS absolute positioning is used to have the text positioned off-page
• "Noscript" tags are used

Increasingly sophisticated algorithms help Google and other Search Engines identify not just when terms are irrelevant but also when they are out of context or overused. For this reason, many regard Keyword Stuffing as an outdated practise that adds no value to rankings today. In many search engines, Meta tags are no longer used to rank websites so keywords placed in that field are ignored.

When Google and other major search engines detect hidden text within content, they may remove a site from its index so that it doesn't appear in search results.

Avoid Keyword Stuffing

Our experience with Internet Marketing will help ensure you target your keywords in the correct manner and avoid Black Hat SEO techniques such as Keyword Stuffing. Contact us, or let us contact you to arrange your free quotation. Fill in your name, email address and telephone number on our contact form and we will get in touch with you usually within a few hours. Alternatively give us a call or send us an email.