Keyword Stuffing Ethical?

[pgaming]

According to Wikipedia keyword stuffing is considered an unethical SEO technique. Some webmasters stuff them in their Meta tags some place-hidden text within their page amongst many other methods. But the intent remains the same to artificially inflate or misrepresent and be place in unrelated indexes thus skewing or spamming the index.

The point, what are your thoughts regarding Keyword Stuffing?

greek39

[universal4]

Well, putting them in the meta tags isn't so bad, but they should only be there if the page is related to them....besides meta tags are not looked at by the engines very closely anyway.

Hiding them in hidden text on the pages...I agree that to be a bad method. If other webmasters see that and file reports that will certainly work against you if many complaints are filed.

Stuffing articles with keywords is a double-edge sword I think.

If they are pertinent to the article, and it isn't overdone then I think this to be fine....but if you overdo it and overuse keywords than that too can work against you.

Rick
Universal4

[pgaming]

Totally agree Rick my thoughts exactly!

Lets see what others might have too say.

greek39

[thepokerkeep]

Some key words will appear naturally over and over in web pages. For example, on a poker website, the word poker will appear dozens of times on a page... it's nearly impossible for it NOT to happen.

I think Google and the other SE's take that into account.

Hidden text is a whole different animal - definitely blackhat seo.

Meta tag stuffing - I think we all do it to some extent - that's what they're there for! But - only with relevant keywords!! I know when I see a site that has weird description text in Google, I pass it and visit a site with a description (meta tag) that makes sense.

Here is the keyword count for "poker" on one of my sites:
Title: 1: 7: 14.3%
Body: 97: 1285: 7.5%
Links: 63: 309: 20.4%
Bold: 30: 226: 13.3%
Meta description: 3: 33: 9.1%

[TheGooner]

I think that if "keyword stuffing" is the worst unethical thing that we have to worry about then it will be a pretty pleasent world.


If the keywords relate to the content and theme of the page, then I have no problem with a webmaster labelling images alts with whatever related term they want.

The demands of the google algo (and all the other search engines ) have meant that webmaster have had to resort to some pretty aggressive in order to rank highly.

The funniest keywork stuffing I see are those template sites that actually do it right out in the open. The opening paragraphs on the front page are full of un-natural search engine terms that read poorly strung together.

That's obvious "stuffing" but not unethical - just the desperate attempts of a webmaster to get rankings. Blame the SE's not the webmaster.

[Renee]

There is a person who will remain nameless who keyword stuffs their posts on a forum I frequent and it's so bad that when they post they go off on a tangent talking about stuff that's not even relevant to the topic anymore... It ruins the whole thread because people can't recover from it. It just stops the threads dead.


So unproductive. I think it shouldn't be allowed in forums personally.

Just my 2 cents.

[casinojack]

Depends oh how you define stuffing, but im all in!

again, as long as the words pertinent, why not....If is a good article and you have repeated it a lot is all good....

Hidden text is fun, but lasts like a couple days then ban hammer...

[pgaming]

Not sure if key search engines pay much attention to keywords nowadays.

Keyword Stuffing 101

Keywords were one method search engines would use to rank websites. Keywords are a reflection of one’s content.

EG. Five hundred words of content discussing a topic say “Pool Cleaning.” I write the content then pick out those keywords I feel are most relevant. Next I form a meta tag description and meta tag keywords. Good SEO in my opinion.

But what happens when your meta tag keywords are not relevant or far exceed your content?

EG. Five hundred words of content discussing a topic say “Pool Cleaning.” Except now in my meta keywords I include 500 words totally unrelated to my content. I may use words such as nachos, free CD’s etc… Or I may use an over abundance of keywords some legitimate with varying degrees of typo errors. Such as online gambling, oline gambling, gambli, gamb, gam, ga, line, fishing, etc..

The image below is a perfect example of keyword stuffing both in the hidden form and the meta tag form. I should mention this is an gambling affiliate who pushes porn along side one brand. Also his earnings are likely more than all us put together. So is it really Ethical to compete using malcious and decpetive practices? I mean any one can do this there is no thought involved.


greek39

[pgaming]

The reason for asking basically two reasons,

1. Gauge what other webmasters thoughts are about the subject.
2. Over the last 3 years I have been submitting spam reports 5days/week 5/day. And yes I feel like Forrest Gump when he decides to run non-stop for 3 years. Think I am tired of submitting them.

Sneaky deceptive practices for monetary gain IMO are indeed Unethical.

greek39

[pgaming]

There is a person who will remain nameless who keyword stuffs their posts on a forum I frequent and it's so bad that when they post they go off on a tangent talking about stuff that's not even relevant to the topic anymore... It ruins the whole thread because people can't recover from it. It just stops the threads dead.


So unproductive. I think it shouldn't be allowed in forums personally.

Just my 2 cents.

Any hints?

greek39

[TheGooner]

One man's keyword stuffing is obviously another man's complete waste of time.


That image example you gave might be hidden text, but it doesn't appear to be keyword stuff to me. It's the inclusion of a whole lot of completely unrelated words - and if he succeeds in getting a hit for any of those words it's probably wasted traffic.

I appreciate you showing us the Greek39 - but it look pointless to me.

I'll give you a better example of what you might keyword stuffing that I do in my football previews using alt tags. If I have a game involving one side - let's say Manchester United ... then my system will also tag some of the graphic images with alt tags that include other common variants ..

eg:
Manchester U, Man Utd, Man United, Manchester Utd, Red Devils, Old Trafford, ManYoo and United (etc, etc, etc).

Also included are common mispellings like Manchester Untied, (you'd be surprsied how many people type untied instead of united.

It's true that these alts relate to images that are not specifically about Man Utd (etc), but I find it helpful to automatically build the variants, and if people click on the link in a search engine then they WILL get a page about their desired subject.

Technically though, you could say that it is "keyword stuffing".

[pgaming]

Completely agree Gooner it is a better example of Hidden Text than anything else. I would have posted a better example but fear it may cause me some whoop ass lol.

The image posted is from an affiliate who has thousands of sites defining the word Spamdexing. He has managed to create a great amount of wealth in the process I can only assume. Been in the bizz since 2003 targeting almost every search index on the web.

In regards to keyword stuffing unethical as I may view it maybe also a waste of time reporting it. A big plus for me because give me back one hour/day lol.

I can understand the typos people enter. Never fails 9 times out 10 when typing in Ebay I type Ebat instead. Dam frustrating wish they would move the y and t keys around.

In any case I appreciate the feedback and thank you for giving me your thoughts.

Now what about Cloaking and Code Swapping lol...just kidding.

greek39

[Pokerworx]

The reason for asking basically two reasons,

1. Gauge what other webmasters thoughts are about the subject.
2. Over the last 3 years I have been submitting spam reports 5days/week 5/day. And yes I feel like Forrest Gump when he decides to run non-stop for 3 years. Think I am tired of submitting them.

Sneaky deceptive practices for monetary gain IMO are indeed Unethical.

greek39

I dunno man, if you have a site that the name is you sell shoes, and every post has shoe or shoes in it thats ok because you sell shoes. IMO the only Unethical thing in what we do is copying and spamming/stealing and the rest that comes with it. Your keywords are what you wanna rank for make your content work with them. Your h1s, 2s, n 3s,, If your not ranking for what you think you should be change your approach. Its not unethical its 80ish% people just like you trying things.

[universal4]

That a geocities site in your example Peter?

Rick
Universal4

[pgaming]

If your not ranking for what you think you should be change your approach. Its not unethical its 80ish% people just like you trying things.

No need changing my approach I am doing just fine. I just wanted to know what people thought about Keyword Stuffing the intent of this thread.

greek39

[pgaming]

That a geocities site in your example Peter?

Rick
Universal4

Yes

Have others

http://www.casinoacademia.3a2.com/

All the hidden text are actually links to various gambling sites.

greek39

[Pokerworx]

No need changing my approach I am doing just fine. I just wanted to know what people thought about Keyword Stuffing the intent of this thread.

greek39

Was just saying man, im learning from all of you just giving my thoughts, Keywords is the very least of my worries.. I make pages find the keywords and make what I rank for from that info,

[pgaming]

Was just saying man, im learning from all of you just giving my thoughts, Keywords is the very least of my worries.. I make pages find the keywords and make what I rank for from that info,

Certainly is my approach as well.

greek39

[pgaming]

And if weren't for this 1998 Harvard Law Paper this topic likely would have not entered my mind lol.

Kind of interesting considering it is more than a decade old.

Imagine a never-ending traffic jam on a ten-lane highway. Road
signs can't be trusted: the sign for Exit 7 leads to Exit 12, the sign for
Cleveland leads to Erie. If you ask the guy at the Kwik-E-Mart how to
get to I-79, he gives you directions to Route 30. To top it off, when you
ask for a Coke, he gives you a Pepsi. Enough already. You stop at a pay
phone to call directory assistance for the number to the local auto club,
and instead get connected to "Dial-a-porn."
Road trip from hell? Not exactly. Welcome to the Internet, the
"information super-highway" that lacks reliable road signs. Suppose, for
example, you use an Internet search engine to look for Web pages on the
late Princess Diana. Instead, you may find get-rich schemes and
pornography.3 Or you search for an attorney -- by name -- and instead
get Internet service providers ("ISPs") and software companies.4 If you
search for pages on "Monica Lewinsky," you might be shocked to find
that the top listing from one search engine is "CityAuction," an Internet
classified advertising site.

source:http://jolt.law.harvard.edu/articles...vJLTech043.pdf

greek39

[patmcluk]

I don't understand where one "hides" these keywords?
I admit that i am more likely to write "Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger" than just Arsene Wenger, but doesn't the natural keywords for your topic just "naturally" appear when one is writng articles?