A lot of bloggers and internet marketers think they have SEO all sewn up, or they rely on rumors about SEO, rather than tried and tested strategies.
But actually it doesn’t take that much common sense to work out that overuse of keywords, known as “keyword stuffing” just looks ridiculous.
The first time I posted a video to YouTube, I think I put over 400 keywords in the Description box after the main description! I had noticed that videos were showing up for searches I had done, but the search words were not in the title, so I checked the descriptions. So I copied them. But this was before YouTube was bought by Google, and although the proper use of keywords goes a long way to getting your content seen, this sort of thing does not work anymore. In fact your site is more likely to be penalized for it.
But I still see sites all the time where people clearly have not worked this out. They are still conforming to what used to work 6 or 7 years ago. I see articles with the main keyword mentioned six times in the first paragraph, and twenty times in the rest of the article, to the point that the text makes no sense at all. And it looks toally unprofessional.
There is nothing wrong with basic SEO, such as putting your keywords in the title, URL, subheadings, images and a small number of times in the content, but the text also has to at least appear professional to human readers, not just search engine spiders.
People are going to be put off by seeing keyword stuffing, and obvious ways to try and fool the search engines. If you look at some of the most successful blogs and websites out there, they actually use the minimum of keywords, and rely more on their brand and reputation to keep the readers they already have.
On the niche sites I have developed to help people and acquire interactivity, I have always got more comments on the posts where the On-Page SEO and keywords within the content is at a minimum. I guess what it boils down to is whether you want to make a quick buck, or whether you’re in this for the long haul. If you want to create longevity and build your reputation in internet marketing, it is best to write articles that look natural.
