EZA Accusing Legitimate Article Writers of Keyword Spamming?

Revolves · 10-26-2009, 10:35 AM

Hello,

I decided to get some articles on EZA for the usual "traffic reasons". Instead of breaking my head into writing an article, I used one from my blog. Believe me, I picked an article that was really damn good, since it was written primarily for my blog.

Copied everything in EZA. Made some fine adjustments. After a couple of previews, hit "Submit!". And all of a sudden, EZA throws an error that a certain word has a density of 2.4%, which was unacceptable. Removed one of its instance. Another error, 2.2%. Removed one more.

And now it got accepted. A little math tells me that each instance of the word accounted for .2%. So if a certain word's density if more than 2%, EZA would reject it without a second thought.

But let me tell you the real problem. The instances of the words I used were legitimate (What do you expect from a 400 words article?). Having to remove them did make it a little unreadable. This was not an intentional keyword spamming I did.

Anyone else has experienced this? I am certain that we can sometime unknowingly exceed the 2% limit. There is a limit to the number of pronouns and other grammatical atrocities we can put in.

So, what's your ideas? How do you keep the density down, if at all you exceed it?

Regards,
Revolves

Alexa Smith · 10-26-2009, 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Revolves

The instances of the words I used were legitimate

They were legitimate to you, yes, but when you're asking EZA to publish your article on their site, guess what? They get to decide what's "legitimate".

Quote:

Originally Posted by Revolves

This was not an intentional keyword spamming I did.

Of course not. It makes no difference to them whether or not it's intentional. The part of the process you're describing is automated. How could it possibly judge what's "intentional"?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Revolves

I am certain that we can sometime unknowingly exceed the 2% limit.

Of course we can. But fortunately for all concerned, they have an automated warning process there to save everyone from a lot of time and trouble and make it easier for them (in this specific regard) to comply with EZA editorial policies.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Revolves

How do you keep the density down, if at all you exceed it?

I do what you've just described, of course. It isn't a problem at all.

Steven Wagenheim · 10-26-2009, 11:09 AM

The solution is called synonyms and they work very well.

Crack open a thesaurus, plug in the keyword and start replacing.

It's that simple.

Or you can do something like this, to make it even more generic.

Say you're writing about acne.

Instead of saying, "If you are suffering from acne"

you could say, "If you are suffering from this condition"

That's one less instance.

If you can't keep your keyword saturation under 2% then you're not
a writer, IMO.

TimGross · 10-26-2009, 11:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

If you can't keep your keyword saturation under 2% then you're not a writer, IMO.

SNAP! :-)

lacraiger · 10-26-2009, 12:34 PM

you can always put a dash - in between the words and it won't count as a keyword.

for example: if you overuse the term "extension cords", you can change some to "extension-cords"

MikeCollins · 10-26-2009, 02:14 PM

I wouldn't take it personally. Alexa is right, it's just an automated filter that sounds the alarm at 2%. I hit it sometimes and it only takes a minute or two to swap in a synonym or rewrite a sentence here or there. It some cases you only have to drop an S at the end to make your keyword plural.

JayXtreme · 10-26-2009, 02:16 PM

Neither my blogs, sites, Joomla or CM systems ever make such wild accusations about my writing

Peace

Jay

Emily Meeks · 10-26-2009, 02:31 PM

Keyword stuffing doesn't just look bad to EZA, but looks bad to the readers. Using a word too often gets redundant, which leads to annoyed readers --> not likely to click on any links.

Steven Wagenheim already mentioned it - the thesaurus is your friend.

Marhelper · 10-26-2009, 02:38 PM

Don't take it personally, just write under the 2% or move on to another directory or write for your own personal site.

vicone · 10-26-2009, 02:42 PM

I'm with Steve and the others on this one. I usually don't worry too much about word density and prefer to have a sprinkling of synonyms and related words throughout the article as it tends to read more naturally and it helps to show the relevance of the content to the title,

For instance, acne can also be described as acne vulgaris, skin condition, skin inflammation, pimples, pimply, inflammatory skin disease, clogged hair follicles, inflammatory condition, inflammatory eruptions, inflammation of the skin, disorder of the skin, skin disorder and skin eruption. I'd also include related terms such as whiteheads and blackheads.

Ivan

Revolves · 10-27-2009, 03:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

If you can't keep your keyword saturation under 2% then you're not
a writer, IMO.

I do understand that. My concern was not at all about EZA insulting me (who cares?), but I was just asking if the 2% limit comes in the way of others. The response widely suggests that it doesn't.

As everyone suggested, I'll use synonyms. I'm sorry for all the nonsense I've caused.

But I don't see how "not being able to keep my keyword density less than 2%" deprives me of being a writer.

Regards,
Revolves

lklein · 11-27-2009, 06:29 PM

If you can't keep your keyword saturation under 2% then you aren't a writer that will conform.

That's ok though.

Sometimes I feel like comforming and sometimes I don't. That's when I just submit to all the other places.

Sometimes I feel like a nut and sometimes I don't.

Really though It can be frustrating when you are forced to change your wording. It depends on your personallity, how much I suppose.

Lambert

DogScout · 11-27-2009, 06:44 PM

It is harder with medical terms, the only synonyms for many items would be the Latin version (which would probably raise another flag. Lol.) and one can only refer to a medical condition or treatment as 'it', 'the process' or 'the condition' so many times before the reader gets even more confused than by the term's over use. (Acne aside).

And no, I do not sell medical treatments of any kind. Not being a doctor, I would find that hard to sleep at night. Even as a doctor, many give questionable advise and they all lose at least one or two patients in a lifetime, it seems. I do, however, write for a doctor who is the one that stamps his approval or re-writes areas I describe wrong before publishing. (So far I am spot on

) But the density does tend to suffer in order to not confuse the reader.

To get around it, most articles have had to cover more than one condition to get up to 500 words and it is hard to go into any depth except on the doctor's site itself. Which works I suppose.

GeorgR. · 11-27-2009, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Anyone else has experienced this?

Uhm..yes? I still dont see the problem, at all. Don't keyword spam your articles. As simple as that.

ebizman87 · 11-28-2009, 12:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

The solution is called synonyms and they work very well.

Crack open a thesaurus, plug in the keyword and start replacing.

It's that simple.

Or you can do something like this, to make it even more generic.

Say you're writing about acne.

Instead of saying, "If you are suffering from acne"

you could say, "If you are suffering from this condition"

That's one less instance.

If you can't keep your keyword saturation under 2% then you're not
a writer, IMO.

I've to agree with STEVIE. Some of the words have synonyms and GOOGLE will also accept your article to rank in SE.

Find a synonym word for your keyword, head on to GOOGLE's tool and check whether that keyword is related to your main 1 or not.If it's YES, then it's GOOD.

Taylor French · 11-28-2009, 12:28 AM

The OP in this thread was NOT intentionally keyword stuffing from what I gathered. In every single article I have ever written for EZA, I have ended up with at least a 2.4% keyword density NATURALLY.

I have never, in my entire marketing career, written an article to conform to a specific keyword density. I write NATURALLY, period.

Then I have to edit my article to sound LESS natural, simply to conform to some arbitrary number.

Yes, I do it, because it's EZA's rules, and I have to conform or go elsewhere. But for some of you self-righteous people to sit and claim someone isn't a writer simply because they use the words they need to use when they are called for is just unbelievable.

Wow, Wagenheim. Full of yourself, or what? Who do you think you are to say someone is or is not a writer? Just because you have 4 trillion articles submitted doesn't make you any more of a writer than someone else.

Jay Jennings · 11-28-2009, 12:41 AM

First step if you do not like the 2% limit -- complain to EZA. They *do* listen to complaints and recently modified a "rule" based on negative feedback from authors.

I just had to modify an article that had a 4% keyword density for the word podcast. No keyword stuffing going on and I'll put my writing up against anyone, any day. There are not a lot of synonyms available for the word podcast, and the article didn't read as cleanly because I had to chop some instances.

(I just added "Check for EZA Errors" to Article Architect so now it keeps track of that while I'm writing, alerts me if I have too many word in the link text, links above the 3rd paragraph, etc. Keeps me from submitting articles with known problems.)

Jay Jennings

KenThompson · 11-28-2009, 02:22 AM

Revolves... perhaps try the other two article directories and throw
some link juice their way. Or keep your articles on your own property
so you can write in your own style and feel good about it. And throw
more juice toward your self. There's lots more you can do that will
benefit you more in the long-term without the aggravation of them.

And you'll maintain more control over your own business, which is the
way it should be. If other people are good with them, and it's not an
issue - fine. I'd encourage you to be your self.

You'll get along famously on your own.

davidyair · 11-28-2009, 02:41 AM

Yeah, I just experienced the same thing editing my article. I just put in a synonym. No big deal. Worked fine.

Prashant_W · 11-28-2009, 09:44 AM

you have to realise this.

Ezine Articles have the right to set whatever rules they want!

i'm sure they get enough unscrupulous SOBs spamming their directory.
If they want to remain the best in the business, they need to have a certain
level of quality control. And this 2% keyword density thing is one way of doing
so.

So here's what you gotta do............

Move away from Ezine Articles or live with their rules.

JohnMcCabe · 11-28-2009, 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Revolves

So, what's your ideas? How do you keep the density down, if at all you exceed it?

Regards,
Revolves

Simple - if the synonym route doesn't work, I use simple arithmetic.

Keyword density is a simple ratio, # of keywords/#of total words. A simple fraction, if you will.

There are two ways to make a fraction smaller - decrease the top number or increase the bottom one.

In this example, the original ratio is 2.4/100, or 9.6/400. Add another 83 words - a paragraph or two - and you can keep your keywords and still meet the 2% density filter.

Wakunahum · 11-28-2009, 11:27 AM

I don't think there is any accusations being made on their part.

They set a 2% occurrence per phrase and 6% occurrence per individual word limit on their articles.

It's better to have it this way via an automatic system than the sit there for 48 hours and get it bumped back having to make the change later. You are getting your articles published FASTER by pointing out mistakes as soon as possible rather than later during a manual review.

You can change words to get under that 2%. You can also quickly add 2 or 3 sentences of content as that for me takes about as long as it does to figure out where the problems are in the article and change them.

10-26-2009, 10:35 AM	#1
Revolves HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 230 Thanks: 21 Thanked 64 Times in 32 Posts	EZA Accusing Legitimate Article Writers of Keyword Spamming? Hello, I decided to get some articles on EZA for the usual "traffic reasons". Instead of breaking my head into writing an article, I used one from my blog. Believe me, I picked an article that was really damn good, since it was written primarily for my blog. Copied everything in EZA. Made some fine adjustments. After a couple of previews, hit "Submit!". And all of a sudden, EZA throws an error that a certain word has a density of 2.4%, which was unacceptable. Removed one of its instance. Another error, 2.2%. Removed one more. And now it got accepted. A little math tells me that each instance of the word accounted for .2%. So if a certain word's density if more than 2%, EZA would reject it without a second thought. But let me tell you the real problem. The instances of the words I used were legitimate (What do you expect from a 400 words article?). Having to remove them did make it a little unreadable. This was not an intentional keyword spamming I did. Anyone else has experienced this? I am certain that we can sometime unknowingly exceed the 2% limit. There is a limit to the number of pronouns and other grammatical atrocities we can put in. So, what's your ideas? How do you keep the density down, if at all you exceed it? Regards, Revolves
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10-26-2009, 11:09 AM	#3
Steven Wagenheim Content & Copywriting Wiz War Room Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Roselle, NJ, USA Posts: 16,394 Blog Entries: 11 Thanks: 1,529 Thanked 6,187 Times in 2,284 Posts Social Networking	Re: EZA Accusing Legitimate Article Writers of Keyword Spamming? The solution is called synonyms and they work very well. Crack open a thesaurus, plug in the keyword and start replacing. It's that simple. Or you can do something like this, to make it even more generic. Say you're writing about acne. Instead of saying, "If you are suffering from acne" you could say, "If you are suffering from this condition" That's one less instance. If you can't keep your keyword saturation under 2% then you're not a writer, IMO.
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10-26-2009, 12:34 PM	#5
lacraiger Advanced Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: San Francisco, CA USA Posts: 589 Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 18 Thanked 22 Times in 19 Posts	Re: EZA Accusing Legitimate Article Writers of Keyword Spamming? you can always put a dash - in between the words and it won't count as a keyword. for example: if you overuse the term "extension cords", you can change some to "extension-cords"
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10-26-2009, 02:14 PM	#6
MikeCollins Writer War Room Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: New Jersey Posts: 179 Blog Entries: 2 Thanks: 20 Thanked 83 Times in 16 Posts	Re: EZA Accusing Legitimate Article Writers of Keyword Spamming? I wouldn't take it personally. Alexa is right, it's just an automated filter that sounds the alarm at 2%. I hit it sometimes and it only takes a minute or two to swap in a synonym or rewrite a sentence here or there. It some cases you only have to drop an S at the end to make your keyword plural.

10-26-2009, 02:16 PM	#7
JayXtreme Lookin at You.... War Room Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Out Of My Mind - Brandy Too Posts: 4,120 Blog Entries: 3 Thanks: 2,885 Thanked 1,344 Times in 710 Posts Social Networking	Re: EZA Accusing Legitimate Article Writers of Keyword Spamming? Neither my blogs, sites, Joomla or CM systems ever make such wild accusations about my writing Peace Jay
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10-26-2009, 02:31 PM	#8
Emily Meeks Innovative Revelation War Room Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Austin, TX Posts: 1,014 Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 713 Thanked 263 Times in 178 Posts Contact Info	Re: EZA Accusing Legitimate Article Writers of Keyword Spamming? Keyword stuffing doesn't just look bad to EZA, but looks bad to the readers. Using a word too often gets redundant, which leads to annoyed readers --> not likely to click on any links. Steven Wagenheim already mentioned it - the thesaurus is your friend.
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10-26-2009, 02:38 PM	#9
Marhelper Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: St. Louis, MO Posts: 3,081 Thanks: 208 Thanked 208 Times in 166 Posts	Re: EZA Accusing Legitimate Article Writers of Keyword Spamming? Don't take it personally, just write under the 2% or move on to another directory or write for your own personal site.
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10-26-2009, 02:42 PM	#10
vicone Senior Warrior Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Sydney, Australia. Posts: 1,253 Thanks: 68 Thanked 191 Times in 160 Posts	Re: EZA Accusing Legitimate Article Writers of Keyword Spamming? I'm with Steve and the others on this one. I usually don't worry too much about word density and prefer to have a sprinkling of synonyms and related words throughout the article as it tends to read more naturally and it helps to show the relevance of the content to the title, For instance, acne can also be described as acne vulgaris, skin condition, skin inflammation, pimples, pimply, inflammatory skin disease, clogged hair follicles, inflammatory condition, inflammatory eruptions, inflammation of the skin, disorder of the skin, skin disorder and skin eruption. I'd also include related terms such as whiteheads and blackheads. Ivan
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11-27-2009, 06:29 PM	#12
lklein Kindle Book Author War Room Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Marion TWP,MI , USA. Posts: 545 Blog Entries: 2 Thanks: 15 Thanked 49 Times in 28 Posts Social Networking	Re: EZA Accusing Legitimate Article Writers of Keyword Spamming? If you can't keep your keyword saturation under 2% then you aren't a writer that will conform. That's ok though. Sometimes I feel like comforming and sometimes I don't. That's when I just submit to all the other places. Sometimes I feel like a nut and sometimes I don't. Really though It can be frustrating when you are forced to change your wording. It depends on your personallity, how much I suppose. Lambert
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11-27-2009, 06:44 PM	#13
DogScout Self Unemployed War Room Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Florida Posts: 2,343 Thanks: 697 Thanked 628 Times in 373 Posts Social Networking	Re: EZA Accusing Legitimate Article Writers of Keyword Spamming? It is harder with medical terms, the only synonyms for many items would be the Latin version (which would probably raise another flag. Lol.) and one can only refer to a medical condition or treatment as 'it', 'the process' or 'the condition' so many times before the reader gets even more confused than by the term's over use. (Acne aside). And no, I do not sell medical treatments of any kind. Not being a doctor, I would find that hard to sleep at night. Even as a doctor, many give questionable advise and they all lose at least one or two patients in a lifetime, it seems. I do, however, write for a doctor who is the one that stamps his approval or re-writes areas I describe wrong before publishing. (So far I am spot on ) But the density does tend to suffer in order to not confuse the reader. To get around it, most articles have had to cover more than one condition to get up to 500 words and it is hard to go into any depth except on the doctor's site itself. Which works I suppose.
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11-28-2009, 12:28 AM	#16
Taylor French HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 481 Thanks: 43 Thanked 56 Times in 46 Posts	Re: EZA Accusing Legitimate Article Writers of Keyword Spamming? The OP in this thread was NOT intentionally keyword stuffing from what I gathered. In every single article I have ever written for EZA, I have ended up with at least a 2.4% keyword density NATURALLY. I have never, in my entire marketing career, written an article to conform to a specific keyword density. I write NATURALLY, period. Then I have to edit my article to sound LESS natural, simply to conform to some arbitrary number. Yes, I do it, because it's EZA's rules, and I have to conform or go elsewhere. But for some of you self-righteous people to sit and claim someone isn't a writer simply because they use the words they need to use when they are called for is just unbelievable. Wow, Wagenheim. Full of yourself, or what? Who do you think you are to say someone is or is not a writer? Just because you have 4 trillion articles submitted doesn't make you any more of a writer than someone else.

11-28-2009, 12:41 AM	#17
Jay Jennings Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: May 2003 Location: Everywhere , USA. Posts: 1,204 Thanks: 46 Thanked 98 Times in 65 Posts	Re: EZA Accusing Legitimate Article Writers of Keyword Spamming? First step if you do not like the 2% limit -- complain to EZA. They do listen to complaints and recently modified a "rule" based on negative feedback from authors. I just had to modify an article that had a 4% keyword density for the word podcast. No keyword stuffing going on and I'll put my writing up against anyone, any day. There are not a lot of synonyms available for the word podcast, and the article didn't read as cleanly because I had to chop some instances. (I just added "Check for EZA Errors" to Article Architect so now it keeps track of that while I'm writing, alerts me if I have too many word in the link text, links above the 3rd paragraph, etc. Keeps me from submitting articles with known problems.) Jay Jennings
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11-28-2009, 02:22 AM	#18
KenThompson . War Room Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 1,153 Thanks: 700 Thanked 591 Times in 417 Posts	Re: EZA Accusing Legitimate Article Writers of Keyword Spamming? Revolves... perhaps try the other two article directories and throw some link juice their way. Or keep your articles on your own property so you can write in your own style and feel good about it. And throw more juice toward your self. There's lots more you can do that will benefit you more in the long-term without the aggravation of them. And you'll maintain more control over your own business, which is the way it should be. If other people are good with them, and it's not an issue - fine. I'd encourage you to be your self. You'll get along famously on your own.
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11-28-2009, 02:41 AM	#19
davidyair Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: , , . Posts: 24 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: EZA Accusing Legitimate Article Writers of Keyword Spamming? Yeah, I just experienced the same thing editing my article. I just put in a synonym. No big deal. Worked fine.

11-28-2009, 09:44 AM	#20
Prashant_W HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: , , Singapore. Posts: 337 Thanks: 52 Thanked 15 Times in 13 Posts	Re: EZA Accusing Legitimate Article Writers of Keyword Spamming? you have to realise this. Ezine Articles have the right to set whatever rules they want! i'm sure they get enough unscrupulous SOBs spamming their directory. If they want to remain the best in the business, they need to have a certain level of quality control. And this 2% keyword density thing is one way of doing so. So here's what you gotta do............ Move away from Ezine Articles or live with their rules.

11-28-2009, 11:27 AM	#22
Wakunahum Advanced Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA Posts: 647 Thanks: 6 Thanked 37 Times in 33 Posts Contact Info	Re: EZA Accusing Legitimate Article Writers of Keyword Spamming? I don't think there is any accusations being made on their part. They set a 2% occurrence per phrase and 6% occurrence per individual word limit on their articles. It's better to have it this way via an automatic system than the sit there for 48 hours and get it bumped back having to make the change later. You are getting your articles published FASTER by pointing out mistakes as soon as possible rather than later during a manual review. You can change words to get under that 2%. You can also quickly add 2 or 3 sentences of content as that for me takes about as long as it does to figure out where the problems are in the article and change them.