I love stuffing. My (Canadian) Thanksgiving turkey was packed to the gills with the tasty edible stuff that most folks enjoy. But keyword stuffing, also known as keyword spamming—makes you a turkey in the eyes of Google and other search engines. While tempting, techniques such as Keyword Stuffing and Black Hat SEO Hacks are short-term myopic thinking.
Any overzealous SEO Copywriter or website owner can easily make this mistake. It’s more common than we think, even post-HCU.
2001: A Spam Odyssey
Besides writing website content as a profession, I’m also a movie buff, and sometimes, the two meet to keep things interesting. Yes, Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” is a classic, but I’ll discuss the year 2001 in more detail.
Back in 2001, I worked in sales for the Yellow Pages directory. Much like most directories of that time, they wanted in on the dot-com bubble. After all, with direct access to thousands of merchants, why not? Considering its history, reach and massive database, it worked as an e-commerce solution in a box sold off the shelves. It worked a little too well.
Houston, We Have a Problem
The original plan was that merchant e-commerce websites, once launched, would be promoted using the Yellow Pages digital platform, which was then in its infancy. That would be a perfect marriage of print and web advertising, right? Maybe.
The plan worked so long as the merchant relied solely on the YP.CA platform to attract buyers. However, problems arose when merchants began advertising their e-commerce stores on search engines like Yahoo!, Google, and others.
The major problem is that the e-commerce stores weren’t optimized for search—or at least search outside YP.CA’s online ecosystem.
The Quick Fix
At the time, SEO was still in its infancy, and gaming the search engines was straightforward: You stuffed your keyword meta tag, meta title, and meta description tags along with your page content with your desired keywords. And voila, you ranked! Well, keyword stuffing evolved, giving way to keyword density.
ICYMI: Keyword density refers to the number of times you use a target keyword on a webpage relative to the total number of words.
Both keyword overstuffing and keyword density are taboo in 2024 since they rely heavily on repetition. Moreover, professional SEOs and SEO copywriters who still rely on keyword stuffing and black Hat SEO Hacks, and other myopic tactics will eventually fall prey to HCU and other spam-detecting algorithm updates, as they should.
What Does The Future Hold for SEOs?
Though SEO is constantly evolving, it has a remarkably bright future ahead. What has Changed is that SEO Professionals need to move with the Times. Gone are the days of keyword density, keyword stuffing and black hat SEO hacks and practices.
In 2024 and beyond, it’s about proving value and an outstanding user experience combined with multi-channel sales funnels rather than gaming search engines. Take it from this highly respected authority on SEO as she says, “Pull back the SEO.”
The key to success is where your business, service, or product ranks in Google results. Ray Litvak, a Professional SEO Copywriter in Toronto, can help boost your rankings and grow your business ethically and sustainably. Call 647-707-2672 or request a Free Quote customized to your specific needs. Contact Ray today. You’ll be glad you did!
