How sure are we that Keyword Stuffing isn't Working?
As I've learned from training and many members within the WA Community, keyword stuffing is a BIG no-no when it comes to getting your site ranked in Google. I've also had first hand experience that keyword stuffing while in use of the All in One SEO plug-in will kill your rankings..
But I noticed this last night and today. I have a few keywords I'm front page on Google with, sitting ranked #5 behind 4 YouTube videos, and the website right below me is unbelievably PACKED with the same keyword.
I'm talking the keyword is in the title, the first paragraph at least three times and in the description at least 2-3 times. Not to mention the article/post the lady has, has the same keyword in it over 20 times. I was shocked to see she sat in front of much more legitimate sites and much more keyword friendly websites.
Anybody know how this could possibly be!?
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That site may be new. So google have ranked it high first but within few days you will not see that website there. It is called google dance
Am sticking with content and writing for my reader. Having to analyze what google does does not reach my non-techy brain. Now if we were talking about Euclid's algorithm -- no problem. ^_~
I like your thinking js... experiment and find out for yourself or watch and see how long she holds the rank... If it is simply stuffed and not relevant.(visitors don't CTR) because it was not what they were looking for but had great keywords... Google wants visitors to click thru... Google likes the content relevent to these keywords... It hurts Google's credibility when they send you to a site that does not match what you were searching. Once google detects that the content is actually not relevant to the keywords...
theoretically you fall out of grace. Should be interesting test. :) go for it!
It doesn't matter that she's ranking now. If you follow the training here then you're doing the right thing. Google releases more animals and her rankings will disappear.
You will find that there are a lot of discrepancies and quirks in Google's algorithm. It's my own opinion that google is constantly testing to see what works and what doesn't. For example, maybe G is just testing her website out in that spot and is tracking things like ctr, how long people stay on the page, and other things. Meanwhile, they are tracking yours too. Multiply those test by millions, and that data could contribute to the next algorithm update.
Also, you will find a lot of discrepancies and varying stories about what good SEO is and isn't. For example, I read your post about the whole all in one SEO pack thing. I highly doubt that it was your meta description that contribute to a loss in rankings, and that you were able to see a bounce back in rankings so quickly only due to the fact that you deleted those descriptions. I know that is what you saw happen, but I think there are more variables at play here.
The point is that you will learn good things here at WA, but sometimes there is not single "right", but several "rights". We learn here to not focus on keywords. That prevents you from stuffing. However, some might argue that 3-4 instances of a keyword in a 500 word article is not 'stuffing', but 'optimizing'. I have written natural articles before, not even thinking about keywords, and gotten rejected from Street Articles for a 6% keyword density. Sometimes I start out thinking of a keyword, and realize I never mentioned it once in the article. So who's to say what a 'natural' percentage is?
20 times in 1 article is a bit extreme, and I don't think she'll last very long there. But I have also seen other people STEAL my original content, place it on their own sites, and outrank me. Now how's that for a quirk in G's algorithm?
I know that's a lot to digest, so to summarize, I only mean that you'll have to find what's right for your site, your niche, and your style. Maybe find a place to fit 1 or 2 more instances of your KW and see if it boosts your rank. Or maybe link an article to it with your KW as anchor text. Or maybe make your page more awesome and get more people to stay on your page longer. Or maybe just forget about this KW and keep focusing on producing content.
Hope this helps.
What kind of competition does the keyword have overall? Remember, keyword stuffing doesn't get punished by Google, it only gets devalued. Which means that if there's no competition it might still rank fairly ok.
But still YOU are on top with just few keywords, so that would tell you even she's packing her posts with the keyword, she's not passing you. So there's no point in stuffing.
How long are her posts? Above 1000 words do you think? The longer your post, the more of a chance you have of getting away with it. If her post is 1000 words plus and relevant, then using the keyword twenty times shouldn't hurt her. Now if she was using a phrase 20 times, then I would suspect it should have a negative impact.
Her keyword or phrase is "so and sos product system review" and her posts are probably around 750 words..1,000 at the absolute max. I was just shocked that she hadn't received a neg. impact yet.
Yeah that phrase should indicate keyword stuffing. Don't know why she's at that current position. Does she have a lot of user engagement within the comment section?
No sir. I've been through 4 posts on her website and it hasn't had a single comment. This girl is defying the odds..more power to her!
Could her Google + have anything to do with it? She's got 217 people who have her in cirlces and it is on the Google search
Possibly. As long as you're above her, that's all that matters for now, and you did that without trying to cheat the system. Congrats.
Yeah, I don't know how she did what she did with such a lack of quality in her page..but I'm impressed. Just researching the competition and how it's succeeding..glad I did it the right way though. Thanks for you your help @Mr Business
Can't answer that. She may just have been lucky so far. Or she has just bought an expired domain and has put new content on it. Either way it's no way to live looking over your shoulder like that, wondering when the axe will fall!
look up her site at pageranking.org and check her domain age. I`m curious if she just hasn`t been sandboxed yet.
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Justin, most likely it is because of your youtube videos as in terms of optimization vs. Indexing you would rank higher. It depends on how relative her content is to the topic, but what is most important is if her links are relative and where those links lead. She may be linking to a un authoritative site,where as you have relative content, video and links.