How Keywords Stuffing Can Kill Your Product Title?

Anything in excess is bad. Just because you like cakes, does it mean that you can have cakes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? You would end up having an upset stomach. This is what happens when you use keywords stuffing in the product title. It can do more harm than good.

The Keyword Stuffing Concept

Just examine the following sentence. This can be a good example of keywords stuffing.

“The best refrigerators in the market; our refrigerators are available for the lowest price in the market. Our refrigerators are of the best quality. Our refrigerators are very useful for keeping food fresh. Buy our refrigerators and get the best deal in town. Showcase our best refrigerators to all your friends.”

How does it look? Even a novice will certify that the sentence does not make any sense at all. This is what you get when you stuff keywords. What lesson do you take from this example? One should not resort to keyword stuffing your Meta description.

Keyword Stuffing and SEO

It can surprise you that people used to stuff their sentences in the past, even as recently as 2012. The modality of Google search engine was such it used to give great cognizance to the presence of keywords everywhere in the content. More the number of keywords in the product title and description more were the chances of ranking high on the search engine.

Many people took advantage of this practice and ended up with a high rank on the search engine. This is what Black Hat SEO is all about. Sensing the damage it caused to the genuine websites, Google came up with an update, known as the Penguin Update.

The Penguin Update

Google introduced the Penguin Update in April 2012 to penalize those websites that used spam methods to improve their ranking on the search engine. One of the main methods they used was keywords stuffing.

Disadvantages of Keyword Stuffing

Before going into the disadvantages of keywords stuffing SEO, one should look at examples of keyword stuffing.

• A list of phone numbers not having any substantial value
• Repeating the same set of words umpteen number of times to the extent of sounding unnatural

Let us look at the disadvantages of keywords stuffing.

• The sentence looks ungainly.
• It offers a poor user experience.
• The sentence looks out of context.
• In the present day context, keywords stuffing can invite penalties from Google.
• It can increase the bouncing rates while lowering the sharing and engagement experiences.

How Do You Avoid Keywords Stuffing?

It is surprising that one writes content for human readers and optimizes the same for search engines. In fact, it should be better if the situation were to be the reverse. How do you avoid the same? One should read out the written content aloud. It should sound as natural as possible. If it does not do so, it is better to revise it. Another way of avoiding keyword overload is to use synonyms. Instead of using the word ‘hair dresser’ five times in the article, you can substitute the same with words of similar intent like ‘hair stylist’. ‘hair cutter’ or ‘barber’.

Is Keyword Stuffing That Bad?

In today’s circumstances, one has to admit that it is a bad practice to stuff keywords. We shall see the reasons for the same.

• Google takes very strong objection to such unethical practices adopted by unscrupulous websites. The other search engines follow Google in this regard. If they come across such practice intentionally or unintentionally, they penalize the website by removing it from the search engine. One should understand that it takes a lot of time to recover from the penal action.
• Users are also very smart today. They can easily make out whether the website has used this technique to improve its position. Hence, they usually do not prefer to click on the website thereby reducing the traffic. Users today read the Meta tags to make out whether the website resorts to spamming or not.
• Keyword stuffing SEO practices result in a lower CTR. This automatically ends up with Google lowering your rankings over a period. This can affect his business a great deal.

The Concept of Keyword Stacking:

The concept of keyword stacking is different from that of keyword stuffing. In this method, you use long-tailed keywords to describe a product better. Amazon specializes in using such long-tailed keywords for their product titles. They believe that the customers usually like to include all the features they are looking for in a product while typing out their search.

They are right in a way as well. People do like to type out various features as they believe it narrows down their search considerably. This is where the wavelengths of the customers and Amazon match. If you look at the Amazon product titles, you can find that they do not stuff the keywords in it. They keep it very specific.

Now, there can be hundreds of air conditioners with similar specifications. Hence, using the simple keywords ‘air conditioners’ would yield a lot of equipment to search. Using long-tailed keywords, they are able to narrow down their search to a great extent. Compare this keyword, ‘ductless air conditioner with inverter technology’. This reduces the options largely hereby resulting in providing lesser options for the customers. You can refine it further by adding the manufacturer name and model.

How to Insert Keywords Safely

There is no magic formula to determine the exact percentage of keyword usage. However, as per the present practice, anything between 3 and 5% should be the right proportion. You are always free to use synonyms provided they do not resemble the original keywords closely.

However, one has to be very careful with the usage. The word ‘bat’ has different meanings. You refer to a cricket bat or a baseball bat. This is sporting equipment. At the same time, you have the mammal ‘bat’ as well. Using the same word can confuse people.

When you use synonyms, you have to be careful as well. The word ‘scheme’ means a program or a plan in India whereas in the USA, they refer to the word ‘scheme’ as something sinister. It is better to use the word, program’ in content instead of the word ‘scheme’.

When you use synonyms, you ensure that you maintain the keyword density in the acceptable range. This makes the content look pleasing to the eye. Hence, people like to go through such content. Automatically, it has a positive effect on the business. The rankings improve on the search engine. Let us now see how you rank for keywords in search engines.

How do you rank for keywords in the search engines?

Ranking keywords in Google is an elaborate task. We shall see how they do it in brief.

• Have a strong base: Start on a small scale by blogging on the social media. Get used to the keyword terminologies before plunging into action.
• Do your research: Do your keyword research well. You have to use keyword tools that can help you find the right keyword to use.
• Test the field: Check out your keyword on the various search engines for the exact match. You have to be different to succeed in this field.
• Display the intention: The long-tailed keywords do a good job of highlighting the features of the product thereby making your search easy.
• The content matters: You need the right kind of content that could help you rank for keywords. Compelling content always holds the edge.
• Execute your plans: Search engines place great emphasis on quality of content. They have the means to separate the grain from the chaff. Execute your plans accordingly.
• Optimize your keyword: The best pages to learn optimization are the Wikipedia pages. There should be perfect alignment between the keywords and the flow of the sentence.
• Publish your content: When you are ready with the product, you should go ahead and publish the same.
• Promote your content: This is the most important part of any marketing technique. Without promotion, you will never be able to market anything in the world.
• Analyze the results: You will reap whatever you sow. Hence. it is better to analyze the same before repeating the same procedure again. This can help you to improvise.

Inference:

You have just seen that keywords are an essential part of SEO. However, keyword stuffing can become a big issue. Google has acknowledged this fact by coming up with the Penguin Update to discourage people from misusing keywords.

Final Words:

No one can deny that they need keywords for effective SEO. However, stuffing them can have a detrimental effect on the website’s interests. People tend to see through the game and this can have a negative impact on the profitability of the company. Thus, keywords stuffing are not at all advisable under any circumstances.  So what’s your take on keyword stuffing in your products and title?

Do share your feedback or suggestions!

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