If you aim to reach the sky with your online business, you need a website that serves as your digital storefront. And to attract organic traffic, you have to make sure that your website ranks higher in SERPs.
Now, there are a plethora of SEO strategies to help you in this quest. Most importantly, what you need is a good content writer. They can understand your brand ethos and weave a story with words that can entice even the most casual or skeptical users!
However, many content writers for hire, intentionally or unintentionally, start to stuff keywords in the content. That’s where the issue begins! Because the moment Google detects keyword stuffing, your rank drops substantially. Even worse, you might lose authority and credibility, which can cost you customers forever.
But, in this AI era, is keyword stuffing still thought to be a manipulative and bad practice? Let’s take a closer look.
A Glimpse into Keyword Stuffing
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Keyword stuffing is quite a traditional black-hat SEO technique! It means filling content with keywords so that search engines detect high keyword usage and rank the website/ webpage higher in SERPs.
Yes, it sounds exactly like what you’re thinking- manipulation! Keyword stuffing is nothing more than a smart way to manipulate search engines to think that a piece of content is valuable!
But the question is, why resort to such a tactic?
Well, search engines once relied on a high keyword count to ensure the relevancy of a webpage or website. Hence, many content writers, or content writing agencies in India, as well as across the world, used this shortcut to gain authority and higher SERP rankings.
However, things changed dramatically when Google came up with three algorithm updates-
– Panda in 2011
– Penguin in 2012, and
– Hummingbird in 2013
Out of these three, the most notable one was the Hummingbird algorithm update. This fundamentally shifted how search engines understood content. How?
Well, it moved away from simple keyword matching. Rather, it began to focus on the semantic meaning of the user’s search query. This meant that Google could now understand the context of the words, and as a result, content that felt unnatural due to excessive keyword repetition began getting penalized. This was a turning point for everyone and forced marketers to prioritize user experience over keywords.
How to Know if a Writer has Used Keyword Stuffing in Content?
If you hire a freelance content writer in India and want to make sure whether they have used keyword stuffing or not, there are quite a few ways!
Firstly, manual checking. Just read the content aloud, and if it sounds robotic or awkward, it is likely keyword-stuffed.
Here are some more tips to help you identify keyword stuffing in content-
- Unnatural and unnecessary keyword repetition
One of the most obvious signs is unnecessary repetition of a keyword. You might see a keyword being forced into a sentence where it isn’t needed. For instance, if you read an article about ‘the best ways to become a content writer in Kolkata’, the phrase ‘content writer in Kolkata’ shouldn’t repeat itself in every other sentence.
- Significantly high keyword density
Keyword density is the percentage of times a keyword appears in the content. Although there’s no fixed rule, a K.D. above 2- 3% can be a problem. Free tools like ‘Word Density Seizer’ can help you detect the K.D ratio, and ensure whether the content has been stuffed with keywords or not.
- Lack of depth and value
More often than not, keyword-stuffed content is created to only rank higher in SERPs. Therefore, you can expect that the content can get you the bare minimum to no value at all. Why? Because the content may not answer a user’s query effectively. This is a common issue with content from some less-experienced writers.
The Final Verdict
As of today, search engines are powered by advanced AI, and hence, can detect black-hat SEO tactics in a jiffy. So, if you’re planning to hire content writers, make sure to look at their previous works and see if they use keywords naturally. They need to incorporate keywords in a way that enhances the content and does not disrupt the reading experience.
That’s the reason why the best content writing companies in India, like Content Freelancing, focus on a ‘people-first’ approach. This means writing to cater to your audience first, and search engines second.
Hence, keywords should support the content, and not dictate it. You can use long-tail keywords and semantic keywords as well. They help you capture specific search intent. These tactics are a far better alternative. They lead to higher rankings and enhance user engagement substantially. So, make sure to employ good content writers who can perfectly portray your brand ethos and write for the human audience to secure higher ranks!
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