Internet Marketing & Search Engine Marketing Blog

Keyword stuffing is one of the oldest spamming techniques on the Internet. Many webmasters still use that technique although most search engines can detect it nowadays.

Last week, Google’s anti-spam engineer Matt Cutts made fun of a website that used keyword stuffing. Apart from the rather dubious content of the web page, the webmaster included a very long list of related and unrelated keywords in a small text box at the end of the page.

Google doesn’t like keyword stuffing

“Keyword stuffing is considered to be an unethical search engine optimization (SEO) technique.

Keyword stuffing occurs when a web page is loaded with keywords in the meta tags or in content. The repetition of words in meta tags may explain why many search engines no longer use these tags.” (Wikipedia definition)

Google doesn’t like keyword stuffing at all. If Google detects keyword stuffing on a web page, that page will be banned from Google’s index. Google’s Matt Cutts puts it that way:

“Webmasters are free to do what they want on their own sites, but Google reserves the right to do what we think is best to maintain the relevance of our search results, and that includes taking action on keyword stuffing.”

You might use keyword stuffing on your web pages without knowing it

While most keyword stuffing is done intentional, it can also happen that your web pages trigger Google’s spam filters although you didn’t want to spam.

For example, if you have very similar keywords that are used often on your web pages, this might look like keyword stuffing.

How to avoid unintentional keyword stuffing

If you’re unsure if you use a certain keyword too often on a web page then use NetConneXion’s optimizer tool. The optimizer tool will analyze your web pages and compare it to the web pages that currently have a top 10 ranking for that keyword.

NetConneXion will tell you in plain English sentences how often you should use your keywords on your web page so that your site can get top 10 rankings. NetConneXion will also tell you in which web page elements you should put the keywords (and how often) so that you get the best results.

Spamming search engines is not a good idea. Although most spam techniques will work for some time, all of them will get your website banned sooner or later. Better focus on ethical search engine optimization methods to get lasting results.

Warren Houston
http://www.netconnexion.com

This week’s editorial was spurred by the following question sent in by one of my readers:

“What sort of web hosting package should I go with, one with a shopping cart or not?”

My answer to this question is simple: DON’T use a shopping cart that’s provided by your web host.

If you want to avoid serious hassles down the road, make sure you use a third-party or even a custom-built shopping cart service.

Here’s why I’m so adamant about this: If the same company acts as your web host and your shopping cart provider, your business will become too reliant on that company.

Just imagine what might happen if your relationship with that company sours… Not only will you have to get a new web host, you’ll also have to set up your entire business infrastructure and ordering system all over again!

Believe me, that’s a pain!

On the other hand if you use a third-party shopping cart or have installed your own custom-built cart, the move from one web host to another will be MUCH easier — since your business won’t be tied into the original web host’s technology.

Remember, web hosts are in the business of selling you as many of their services as possible. Many of these services will add value to your business, but you need to carefully pick and choose only the ones that make sense.

Finally, I thought I’d leave you with a short list of questions you need to ask before you pick a web host. Choosing a host is a very important decision, and before you make it you need to talk to the host — as well as people who have used that host — and find out the following:

• Do they offer secure server capabilities? This allows private information like credit card numbers to be sent through your site without fear of interception. Most people won’t purchase a thing online unless they know they’re ordering through a secure server.
• Do they have FAST servers? The quickest way to lose visitors — and therefore customers — is to make them wait too long for your web page to load! Your host should have at least a T3 connection to the major Internet backones.
• How much space do they provide? Make sure they provide enough space for you to grow your site over time. Ten gigabytes is a good target to shoot for (it might seem like a lot now, but if you build a complex site over time, you’ll be happy for the extra space.)Also, if you’re planning to offer downloads of eBooks, software, or other large files, make sure there aren’t any unreasonable restrictions on bandwidth.
• Do they offer a web-based adminstration interface? This allows you to manage your server easily via the Web.
• Do they give you access to your raw server logs? You need to access your logs in order to analyze your web site traffic — and that’s essential information you can’t live without!
• What’s their downtime? The answer needs to be as close to zero as possible.Your web host needs to be up and running 99.9% of the time. There’s nothing more frustrating than having your web site go down in the middle of a new marketing campaign. After all, every second it’s down means lost profits for you.
• Do they make you sign long-term contracts? If so, run away! Long-term contracts force you to give up a lot of flexibility — and if something ever happens, you might not be able to make the switch to a new web host when you need to.

All right, – I hope that my answer helps you out!

If you want to know more about setting up your website — or anything else about Internet Marketing, for that matter, I suggest you check out my Internet Marketing & Business Coaching Programs .  It’s the complete guide for everything you ever wanted to know about building and marketing a business on the Internet.

To learn more about my coaching programs, click here: http://www.netconnexion.com/internet-business-marketing-coaching.htm.

To building Internet Wealth!

Warren Houston
http://www.netconnexion.com