How to avoid spammy SEO

Since the dawn of Search Engine Optimization, people have been searching for new ways to optimize and rank for as many keywords as possible. Unfortunately, that can lead to a couple major problems.

The problem

First, cramming all of those keywords in there makes your page read horribly. Remember, your ultimate goal is not just ranking, but having real people visit your website and read your content.

Second, keyword stuffing is a quick way to get your website penalized by Google. Putting too many of those words and phrases in there can actually cause you to drop in the rankings, rather than the other way around.

There’s a way to optimize for several similar keywords at once without making your page content look terrible.

An example

Let’s say that you’ve done your keyword research and found you can get traffic for these keywords:

• Detroit Chevrolet dealer
• Detroit Chevrolet dealers
• Detroit Chevrolet dealership
• Detroit Chevrolet dealerships

Now if you aren’t very experienced in the SEO world or if you’ve gotten some bad advice, you might wind up using each of these keywords two or three times. And, of course, the result would be a spammy mess.

The solution

In the eyes of Google, “Detroit Chevrolet dealerships” optimizes your page for all four of those keywords. You’ve used only three words. You can fill the saved space with persuasive, easy-to-read content.

When you’re doing keyword research for any page, keep this in mind that you can optimize for multiple variations of a given keyword, depending on how alike the variation is.

Remember to keep the visitor first in your mind. While optimizing your pages for search is important, visitors have to be able to easily navigate the site and make a purchase for your website to do its job.

Interested in learning more about me? You can find out more about me on my website, or follow me on Twitter at @woeifert.