Sunday, February 25, 2007

Internet Marketing: Keyword Stuffing – Good Idea or Bad Policy?

By Scott Lindsay Platinum Quality Author

Keywords are an important function of Internet marketing. The use of a specific set of keywords or phrases can help a website earn better rankings with search engines, but how much is too much?

A friend of mine was asked once to provide content for a website where the key phrase had three words and that key phrase had to be used ten percent of the time. In other words, for every 100 words written the phrase has to be included 10 times. To put that in perspective the article could only have seventy original words in one hundred because the other thirty words were tied up in the mandatory use of a key phrase. My friend turned the work down.

Why?

Because he understood that the only way to write content with a key phrase count that high would be to stuff the article and force the use of the key phrase even when it would not be normal to do so.

Perhaps you have been to websites that have content that are filled to overflowing with a particular keyword or phrase. The articles are no fun to read and can’t really be considered knowledge-based. These articles are, in fact, only present for the benefit of search engines.

Most experts indicate 4-5 keywords or phrases per article or 2-3% (whichever allows for the most use). Essentially you should not use more than 3 keywords or phrases per one hundred words.

If you do work with a freelance writer make sure they understand that you are more interested in a quality article than in making sure an exact number of keywords are used.

Some online businesses will also request that a freelance writer they are working with include any common misspelling or word separations that might be used when searching online. The reason some businesses request intentional misspellings is that if a potential customer types in the word incorrectly then the business may show up well in the rankings for the misspelling.

I’m not sure I recommend this, but if you come across a site with a few misspellings it is possible the mistake was intentional.

You have to remember when you write or have articles written you are attempting to reach your customers just as strongly as you are search engines.

Internet marketing is an important component to the overall success of your online company. Make sure keywords or phrases allow your Internet marketing to succeed by concentrating on your customer no less than you do SEO strategies.

Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. Get your own website online in just 5 minutes with HighPowerSites.com at: http://www.highpowersites.com. Start your own ebook business with BooksWealth at: http://www.bookswealth.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Scott_Lindsay

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