How do I know I'm keywords stuffing?

[handle]

Hi,

I'm just wondering what actually constitutes keyword stuffing? Let's say I"m going for the keywords 'goldfish accessories'. Would it be wrong to title the majority of my posts and image file names including these words?

Any other guidance you care to share also welcomed!

[razorico]

I recommend you to use two to four word key phrases not to exceed 12 keywords, more than 12 is keyword stuffing by google's standards, as I know. Don't blend your keywords with the background of the page, so vizitors won't see it, but google will.

[handle]

Thanks! Does entering them into the titles and alt text for images count?

[noah.whitmore]

A lot of SEO guys and gals around here would say yes, img titles and (especially) alt text is a good place to put your main keyword.

But, you said 'Does entering them into the titles...' which makes me think that you want to throw a bunch of keywords into titles and alts. I would not recommend that. The alt element is meant to describe the contents of the image on a page, in case a user's browser doesn't display images or they are visually impaired. Google still wants you to use it for this purpose.

You can get away with putting one keyword into an alt text, but I wouldn't recommend two or three. Google will want you to use the longdesc element for a description that has many words.

YES - put your keywords into your page title. But, don't go crazy. Google search cuts off the title after 64 or so characters. So, you should use your title real estate wisely. Use something like 'Main Keyword - Description of content - Synonym/Secondary Keyword'.

Keeping your main keywords at the front will ensure that search engine users will be able to see the keyword and if they searched for that keyword specifically, it will show up in bold.

As far as keyword density in your page content, I would personally recommend keeping your keywords as about 2% of your page content or less. That's what I have had the most success with - I think that if you go higher, Google kind of thinks that you're trying to stuff your page with keywords.

Try to use a tool like Traffic Travis to analyze your pages for SEO. Traffic Travis gives great suggestions - even goes into what you use as h1 and h2 tags and META tags, etc...

Good luck. Hope that helps.

-Noah Whitmore

[megan12]

If you will use your primary keyword again and again in your web content or article then you will do keyword stuffing man! never use your keyword more than 3 time in your content.

[handle]

Sorry is I'm coming off obtuse. I just am genuinely new. But let's say I've got a site about how to keep your kitchen tidy and I make all of my image alt text something with the words keep your kitchen tidy

e.g. This cloth will keep your kitchen tidy
Keep your kitchen tidy with this awesome spray
Even your dog can be used to keep your kitchen tidy

and so on.

It's relevant, but by your recommendation this would be a bad idea right?

Wow this SEO stuff is going to take me ages to learn, Haven't even touched on backlinks, etc yet!I guess this is why people hire experts but I'd really like to have some understanding first!

[android45]

keyword stuffing is something you are trying to use your keyword for more times to manipulate search engines but in each page you can use only 4% of your keyword.

[noah.whitmore]

Originally Posted by handle

Sorry is I'm coming off obtuse. I just am genuinely new. But let's say I've got a site about how to keep your kitchen tidy and I make all of my image alt text something with the words keep your kitchen tidy

e.g. This cloth will keep your kitchen tidy
Keep your kitchen tidy with this awesome spray
Even your dog can be used to keep your kitchen tidy

and so on.

It's relevant, but by your recommendation this would be a bad idea right?

If you are planning to put all of that info into a single img alt, I would say yes that is a very bad idea. Like I said before, Google wants you alt elements to describe the contents of the image.

For instance, if you have a picture of the empire state building, your alt text could be something like 'The majestic Empire State building towering over the city.' That's what the alt text is truly for. This tells users what is in the image.

However, since images usually contain things that are relevant to the topic of the site, search engines use the alt text to help figure out how to rank the site. So, SEO's would tell you to carefully put your keywords into your alt text.

But, if you throw two or three or four sentences in there, Google will know right away that you are tryin to pull something and they'll probably just ignor the alt text all together.

Sorry for the long explanation, just figured that you might want to hear the whole story.

-Noah

[Marketing Ignite]

no that would not be appropriate..you should accurately describe each image what they are really about and use important keywords..so on the title of course you need it to as well as other strategic places on the page..