Google’s John Mueller revealed that the search engine’s algorithms do not punish keyword stuffing too harshly.
In fact, keyword stuffing may be ignored altogether if the content is found to otherwise have value to searchers.
This information was provided on Twitter in response to users inquiring about keyword stuffing. More specifically, a user was concerned about a page ranking well in search results despite obvious signs of keyword repetition.
Prefacing his statement with the suggestion to focus on one’s own content rather than someone else’s, Mueller goes on to say that there are over 200 factors used to rank pages and “the nice part is that you don’t have to get them all perfect.”
When the excessive keyword repetition was further criticized by another user, Mueller said this practice shouldn’t result in a page being removed from search results, and “boring keyword stuffing” may be ignored altogether.
“Yeah, but if we can ignore boring keyword stuffing (this was popular in the 90’s; search engines have a lot of practice here), there’s sometimes still enough value to be found elsewhere. I don’t know the page, but IMO keyword stuffing shouldn’t result in removal from the index.”
There are several takeaways from this exchange:
- An SEO’s time is better spent improving their own content, rather than trying to figure out why other content is ranking higher.
- Excessive keyword stuffing will not result in a page being removed from indexing.
- Google may overlook keyword stuffing if the content has value otherwise.
- Use of keywords is only one of over 200 ranking factors.
Overall, it’s probably not a good idea to overuse keywords because it arguably makes the content less enjoyable to read. However, keyword repetition will not hurt a piece of content when it comes to ranking in search results.
It's usually more actionable to focus on your own sites, rather than to focus on "why is someone else's site ranking above mine when I don't think it's as good as mine" … We use over 200 factors for ranking, the nice part is that you don't have to get them all perfect.
— John ☆.o(≧▽≦)o.☆ (@JohnMu) June 20, 2018
Yeah, but if we can ignore boring keyword stuffing (this was popular in the 90's; search engines have a lot of practice here), there's sometimes still enough value to be found elsewhere. I don't know the page, but IMO keyword stuffing shouldn't result in removal from the index.
— John ☆.o(≧▽≦)o.☆ (@JohnMu) June 20, 2018
