How to Avoid Keyword Stuffing in Your WordPress Website?

by Vipe Team in Copywriting; Published on 24.09.2021

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If we had a time travel machine and travelled back to, let’s say 2008, we would have been able to see very closely one really bad Internet practice that was at its peak at the time. What could we possibly mean? Well, our WordPress Agency for Development is talking about keyword stuffing – the original enemy of high-quality content on the web.

So back in the day, people used to flood their content with keywords to make it rank higher in search engines. Did it work? For some time it definitely did. However, with time, Google got smarter and smarter and it changed its algorithm in a way that detects any misuse of keywords in your content.

Look, we’re aware that once you finish the exciting process of WordPress website development, you would want to get your content to appear at the top of Google results. And you might have a little mischievous voice in your head that tells you to use a shortcut to achieve that.

Keyword stuffing is such a shortcut but our WordPress development agency needs to warn you – use your brains and don’t fall for these kinds of black hat tactics. Trust us, they will do more harm than good. We’re not telling you to not use keywords at all. They are super important because this is still how users or bots find your site. But you want to use keywords in a smart way that works both for you and your target audience.

If you’ve been following Vipe Studio’s blog for a while you know how important SEO is for your online visibility. WordPress website development and Search engine optimization are two things that go hand in hand. A lot of our clients are constantly asking us to reveal everything we know about Google’s algorithm. We’ll be honest with you – this is a mystery box that only Google has the key to. Everything else is simply speculation. There are, however, some best practices that you should follow.

What our WordPress development company knows for sure is that search engines can recognize spammy tactics and poorly written content. This is why we advise you to spare yourself the trouble and stay on the safe side of SEO. Focus on creating valuable content for your audience and stay away from keyword stuffing. You should be clever with the way you use search terms throughout your website.

Ok, but how exactly do you avoid this bad practice while at the same time benefiting from the powerhouse that is keywords? Don’t worry. In today’s article our WordPress Agency for Development is going to tell you everything you need to know about keyword stuffing, why it’s so bad for your site, and how to implement proper keyword usage. Let’s begin!

Keyword Stuffing Explained

Put simply, keyword stuffing is the practice of excessive usage of certain words or phrases in web content. This method aims to manipulate the site’s rankings in search engines. As our WordPress development agency already mentioned, this used to work for a while until Google updated its algorithm to ensure that spammy content will be kept at bay and the top results in its search engine will be of the highest quality possible.

If you’re not sure what keyword stuffing actually looks like you’re probably one of the lucky ones who have never encountered it on the web. A simple exercise you can do is read your piece of content out loud – if your keywords sound out of place and unnatural, you might have stuffed them like a sandwich that has too much of everything (no one likes sandwiches like that).

Once your WordPress website development is done watch out for a copy that reads like this one:

“We sell custom inflatable unicorn pool floaties. Our custom inflatable unicorn pool floaties are handmade. If you’re thinking of buying a custom inflatable unicorn pool floaty, please contact our custom inflatable unicorn pool floaty specialists at custom.inflatable.unicorn.pool.floaties[at]example.com”

Like…how bad is that (we mean the copy…inflatable unicorn pool floaties are totally awesome otherwise)?! As you can probably tell, the phrase ‘custom inflatable unicorn pool floaties’ is used an overwhelming amount of times for a text that’s so short. It sounds super robotic and spammy and our WordPress development company can’t believe there are website owners out there who are still doing that atrocious thing to their content.

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By the way, Google has classified the following actions as keyword stuffing:

Lists of phone numbers that don’t provide any significant added value;
Webpages with blocks of text that have a lot of cities and states listed with the intention to rank high for them.

Here are more examples of keyword stuffing that our WordPress Agency for Development wants you to watch out for:

Constant repeating of words or phrases;
Weird words that are out of context;
Whole blocks of text with the same keyword;
Keywords that are absolutely irrelevant to the topic of the page.

Is that all? Unfortunately, it isn’t. Did you know that there are invisible keywords? And no, we’re not talking about something magical that has come straight out from the wizarding world of Harry Potter. Here’s how this type of keyword stuffing works:

There is a dubious practice in which users camouflage particular words or phrases by using a white font against a white background. This hides terms from readers but displays them to search engine crawlers;
Large portions of repeated text could also be placed in the page’s code, alt attributes, meta tags, and comment tags.

Our WordPress development agency warns you that these types of keyword stuffing are not effective ways to rank higher in search engines and they can be easily detected which in turn can actually lead to lower rankings. You don’t want that to happen so don’t fall for these fishy practices.

Keyword Stuffing Is Bad for Your Website: Here’s Why

By choosing a professional WordPress website development service, we would like to believe that you not only want to have the best possible site, but you also wish to provide your audience and potential clients with real value throughout your content. Search engines are clever and their main goal is to show content that is relevant to the user’s search intents.

If we had to tell you just one thing to keep in mind about keyword stuffing it would be that – please remember to first write for your readers and not for search engines. Doing the latter will only result in an awful user experience and no one would return to your site ever again. The content you put out on your website should be educational and engaging. Stuffing it with keywords won’t do the trick – it will only make it unreadable and low quality.

Another thing that our WordPress development company wants to make clear is that keyword stuffing can lead to actual penalties. You don’t want to make Google mad because this might lead to a penalty that could be partial (affecting only specific pages) or applied to your entire website. And what do you think happens as a result of that? That’s right, your content is no longer worthy to appear in search engine results.

You might be wondering “Ok, but are there any specific guidelines related to keyword stuffing?”. Well, there aren’t really. As you might know, Google is very cautious when it comes to clear information about its algorithm. Our WordPress Agency for Development actually applauds that because we realize that this is done with the intent to encourage the creation of high-quality posts that provide users with value.

However, as we said at the very beginning of this article, there are always best practices that you should strive to follow to ensure that your content ranks higher. For example, keyword stuffing should be avoided at all costs because it can negatively impact user experience (UX). If you didn’t know, UX is definitely a ranking factor. Another bad thing for your ranking is having a high bounce rate and if you stuff your website with keywords you’ll have to deal with that, too.

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For our WordPress development agency keyword stuffing looks messy, unreadable, and highly unprofessional. We urge you to be careful and to use keywords the right way. Remember that even if you manage to get a higher ranking from using keyword stuffing, your bounce rate will also skyrocket which will alert search engines that the content on your website is not trustworthy.

How to Use Keywords Correctly?

Now that you know everything important about the dubious practice of keyword stuffing and the consequences it can have on your website, you likely wonder how to use keywords the right way.

After you have finished the process of WordPress website development, you should focus on optimizing keywords instead of stuffing them into your content.

To help a webpage rank for a specific keyword, you need to use the target term in all the right places. Below our WordPress development company has listed some useful SEO practices to consider.

1. Assign a Primary Keyword for Each Post and Page

To rank well in search results, you’ll need to identify your focus keyword and optimize your whole content around it. To find out what terms your audience is looking for, you can use popular tools like Keyword Planner. Our WordPress Agency for Development reminds you that the primary phrase should be relevant to the topic of your website and should be closely tied to the content you create.

Go for a low-competition (but still popular) keyword as it might be challenging to rank for highly competitive keywords at the very beginning. Another tip we can give you is to avoid targeting the same word or phrase for multiple pages. This can be a problem because search engines may get confused and not know which one to crawl first.

So remember to assign a unique, target keyword for each page on your site that you want to rank for in search results. Our WordPress development agency wants to assure you that by doing so you will keep your pages of content from competing against one another. Another added benefit is that you will also send a clear message to search engines about what each piece of content on your site is about.

2. Place Your Keywords in the Right Places

You’ve successfully identified your focus keyword? Congrats, that’s great! Now our WordPress development company wants you to use it strategically. This can be achieved by simply placing your keywords in the right places. Here’s where it’s best to include them:

Place your keywords in the page or post title;
Place your keyword in at least one subheading;
Place your keywords in the meta description;
Place your keywords in the first paragraph of the body copy;
Place your keywords near the end of the page or in the concluding part of the post;
Place your keywords in at least one image alt text.

3. Make Your Content Longer Than 300 Words

Our WordPress Agency for Development thinks it’s important to note that your body copy should be at least 300 words and more. Since search engines strive to provide users with the most relevant and valuable content that can match their search intents, you’ll have a bigger chance to rank higher if your posts are thorough and in-depth.

4. Focus On the Appropriate Keyword Density

As a general rule, the experts from our WordPress development agency recommend that your keyword shouldn’t appear in more than 2% of your text. This means that if your blog post is 1000 words long, you can use your primary keyword less than 20 times and still see great results.

However, we want to stress that these types of guidelines are mostly speculative as Google hasn’t provided its users with an official statement regarding the optimal keyword density. So make sure that you don’t overuse your primary keyword and place it only where it feels relevant and natural. If you have any doubts, read your copy out loud and see how it feels.

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5. Use Long-Tail Keywords, Secondary Keywords, and Synonyms

Another pro tip that our WordPress development company can give you is to use secondary keywords on your pages. These different terms and phrases are used by search engine crawlers to get more context which then helps them rank a page. You can assist them in that process by simply using secondary keywords that are synonyms of your primary keyword.

You can also use long-tail versions of your primary target term. This will help crawlers rank your page because these types of keywords reinforce what your content is about. Another benefit of using long-tail variations of your keyword is that they can also help search engines identify places in your content that answer questions. This will allow your content to be featured in Google’s “People also ask” section. Neat, isn’t it?

6. Write for Human Beings, Not Machines

Last but not least, our WordPress Agency for Development wants to remind you of the importance of writing in a friendly, natural way that will be appealing to humans, not just search engines. Yes, using keywords throughout your content is a solid SEO practice that works if it’s done correctly. Unnecessary stuffing your website with keywords though will only make your posts and pages unreadable and unpleasant for the human eye.

As we already mentioned, positive UX is a massive ranking factor that should not be ignored. This is why we advise you to learn more about SEO copywriting after you’re done with your WordPress website development. In summary, though, SEO copywriting is the art of using keywords in a way that seamlessly blends with the rest of your publication.

Remember that your site’s visitors are smart people who want to see clear, valuable and engaging content that answers their questions. If they don’t find that, they will leave your site and might never return again. Forcing your keywords into the texts on your website, in ways that don’t make sense, will surely leave a very bad impression on your visitors and will make them hit the ‘back’ button really quickly.

Don’t Stuff Your Keywords, Use the Right Strategy!

So there you have it – today we learned everything about keyword stuffing and how to avoid it once you finish your WordPress website development and start to create content for your site. Please remember that keyword stuffing can never be a proper solution to your SEO problems. What’s more, it can actually do you more harm than good.

When writing content for your website, you should always have your target audience in mind – these are people we’re talking about, not machines. Users trust sites that provide them with the most relevant and high-quality information that addresses a specific problem or question they might have.

Our WordPress development agency believes that your organic rankings and position on the search engine results page (SERP) can increase dramatically if your audience actually enjoys your content and stays on your website longer. It is not enough to simply repeat a certain keyword over and over in your texts. You need to do proper research and then have a solid strategy to optimize your content and soar above your competitors.

We really hope that the tips we shared in today’s article have been helpful for you. As tempting as it may seem, taking shortcuts with any aspect of your WordPress website development will not do you any favours. So be smart and treat your own site with the respect and care it deserves. That way you’ll attract new followers and potential customers to your business.

If you’re reading this article because you’re planning ahead and you still don’t have a website to call your own, our WordPress development company will be more than happy to become your long-term partner in that endeavour. Contact us today and let’s make your dream website a reality together!