Keywords are an important aspect of SEO writing. Because keywords are identical to the phrases that people type into search engines when they are looking for something online, adding these keywords throughout an article will help the search engine to know that the article is related to what a person is searching for. It is important when using keywords to make them sound natural. It is really important that keywords are not used too many times as this will throw up a red flag and could actually be detrimental to the website the content is going on as opposed to being beneficial. You do not have to include keywords more times than requested in the instructions for any given article.
Having too many keywords in an article is referred to as keyword stuffing. For instance, if you have a 500 word article on the history of Halloween and the keywords for the article are “Halloween” and “trick or treat,” those keywords need to be used enough times for the search engine to pick up on them but not so many times that the article seems stuffed. If your 500 word article on the history of Halloween has the keyword “Halloween” in it 15 times and “trick or treat” in it 22 times, this would be keyword stuffing.
We can’t really put a definitive number on how many times is too many to use a keyword because there is no hard rule but it is important that an article sounds natural when read. If it is stuffed full of keywords it is not going to sound natural. It is also important that if you have multiple keywords to work into an article, that they are evenly spread throughout the content. You don’t want to include the first keyword in one paragraph only, then the second keyword in the next paragraph only, and so on. Please evenly spread out each keyword, again, so that the article looks natural and flows well.
The same goes for the name of a company or website. Even if the name of the company or website is not considered a keyword, you do not want to include it in an article too many times. This sounds unnatural and interrupts the flow of the article. Use terms like “we” and “us” in place of the company or website name to make the article flow more smoothly.
To reiterate the points above:
- Proofread your article prior to submitting to make sure that it sounds natural and does not include the same keyword 15 or 20 times.
- Make sure that all keywords are spread evenly throughout the content. Don’t use all of your allotted keyword count for one specific keyword in one paragraph. Spread out your keywords. (Suggestion: Keep a tally of how many times you use each keyword as you are writing to ensure that each keyword is used the correct number of times and is spread evenly throughout the content.)
- Do not use a website or company name too often when writing, use terms such as “we” and “us” in addition to the name of the company or website.
- As always, if you are not sure of something, please email us for clarification prior to submitting your assignment.