Speaking to a group of new bloggers the other night, I was asked about the trade off between SEO and authentic content in terms of keyword optimization. The idea that keyword phrases should be repeated often and obnoxiously for maximum search engine effect is still prevalent. In reality, search engines penalize too many keywords just as much if not more than too few.
Search engines use complex algorithms to rank Web sites. While these closely guarded algorithmic formulas vary from search engine to search engine, they are all designed to identify Web sites with
the most relevant content for a given search phrase.
It's a perpetual game of cat and mouse between search engines and "black hat" search marketers. Black hats devise methods of "tricking" search engines into assigning higher rankings to a Web page, and search engines respond by adjusting their calculations to penalize it.
"Keyword stuffing", as it is often called, is one such black hat technique that involves packing text and/or meta tags with a set of keywords. Once popular and effective, keyword stuffing accomplishes nothing positive today. Quality content is more than mindless repetition of keyword phrases, so that's what the search engines look for.
When in doubt, follow your instincts when writing Web and blog content. Your natural tendency will be to use relevant keywords, make them part of headlines and in bold text, and repeat them at search-engine friendly intervals. Search engines, after all, are looking for Web pages that are authentic, not ones calculated to manipulate the system. Good copywriting practices result in good SEO.
This doesn't mean you shouldn't do your homework to identify the keyword phrases your customers are likely to use. It doesn't mean you should ignore basic "white hat" SEO techniques, either. But in the end,
SEO starts with great content.
Further reading ...
Using keyword research, from Marketing Virgin.
Star copywriter Robert W. Bly explains why he doesn't believe in
SEO copywriting.
