How to remove and prevent keyword stuffing

In this guide I will show you with screenshots how to check for and remove keyword Stuffing, and then at the end, I will give you some insight on how to prevent keyword stuffing from happening to begin with.

Keyword Stuffing is one of the black hat warning signs that I mentioned in my 3 Black Hat Warning Signs post.

So if you were unfortunately a victim of this you may want to check that post out to see if anything else is troubling about your website.

Also, SEO specialist may want to check out this post because I am sure you will have clients that this happened to and you need to help out.

Okay let’s get into it:

 

What does it mean to Keyword Stuff

Keyword stuffing, also known as “spamming” is when you use the exact same keyword or important term in your Title tag, Meta Description, Alt Text, Headings and or content, more than what is necessary in an attempt to rank your content higher on search engines results pages.

This is often done in poor taste in order to get more clicks or more traffic to a page, at the expense of the user’s experience.

It is generally not recommended by SEO specialists, or search engines like Google since it will likely get your page or website penalized.

Here’s an example:

(Cited from Content Writers)

As you can see from the screenshot, the keyword “Firepits” is used through out the webpage, but too much to the point that it makes the content sound robotic and overly processed.

So again it should be avoided.

Now that you know what keyword stuffing is here’s how to fix it:

 

1. Check to see if your content has keyword stuffing

Sometimes when creating content you may overuse a keyword unintentionally.

To prevent this, you can use a keyword density tool to see how often a keyword is repeated.

Just put in your website url:

Press enter and then scroll down to your “keyword density report”

Here’s an example:

You may hear some SEOs says that the ideal keyword density is 1-3% but honestly it’s not hard and fast rule.

But if it is anything crazy like 30% or 50% then you need to make some edits.

Alternatively, I recommend reading your content out loud.

By hearing yourself read you can often pick up on the overuse of a keyword as well.

 

2. Look back over your content and remove keyword stuffing

Once you have an idea of your keyword density, you will definitely have to login into your website’s hosting, if keyword stuffing is present, and edit your content.

Now once you are logged into your site navigate to your pages, find the offending page, create a new page, and then copy over the edited page.

I would rewrite the content to sound as human and natural as possible by:

• Including keyword variations and related words
• Consulting a subject matter expert
• Speaking out your writing

For more information on how to make your writing more natural, read my 8 Semantic SEO Copywriting tips guide.

Next you need to resubmit the page to Google.

I am going to show you how to do this by using Google Search Console.

If this is your first time using it, I recommend checking out my Google search console install guide.

But if you are already connected then let’s move to the next step.

 

3. How to resubmit your webpage to Google:

Now that your site is verified, go to “inspect url” and paste in your webpage you want to submit.

Be sure you include “www” in the url.

Press enter and press “request indexing”.

Google will test your webpage first:

If it is compliant you will get this message:

Now you just have to wait for Google to re-index the page. And you’re good to go 🙂

 

How to prevent keyword stuffing to begin with

The best way to prevent keyword stuffing from happening is to make sure that you read your website content out loud.

So you can hear each word and be able to tell if it sounds natural.

Also, if you are having someone write your content for you, like an agency.

I would also take the time to proof read it to make sure that it truly represents how you want to communicate with your audience.

Too many times do website owners outsource content making only for it to be very poor quality.

Check out my post on how to pick a good SEO company to make sure you work with a good one.

Plus with search engines now penalizing this heavenly, you don’t want to put yourself in a predicament where you are not able to get any traffic.

 

I can help you fix your problem with a free consultation

Back during the early days of SEO you could keyword stuff and it would actually lead to higher rankings.

But those days are long gone, and now it just leads to being buried in the search rankings.

If you were unfortunately a victim of this, I am sorry that happened to you.

If you want me to help you repair it, feel free to use the contact form to send me a message, and I can offer you a free consultation to help.

Best of luck to you!