Google Webmaster Tools Is Showing Weird Keywords?

by SeanyG
9 replies
  • SEO
  • |
Hi guys,

I am learning more about SEO and yesterday I was looking at the Keyword density of my site in the Google webmaster tools.

My blog is on making money online and online business advice.

The first two words make sense:

business
money

The next few don't make sense:

flickr
freedom
startup
startupfreedom
photo
video
blog
facebook
post
cite

Then Marketing is the last keyword after all of these random keywords. Not good!

These are NOT words that I use in my content very often if at all.

Some of these words are on my right menu: flickr, startup, freedom, startupfreedom (the name of the blog). I don't know where the rest are coming from!

I would be very grateful if someone could bring some clarity to where these words are coming from and how I can stop Google from indexing them on my site.

Thanks for your time and your advice!

~Sean
#keywords #showing #tools #webater #weird
  • Profile picture of the author SeanyG
    Any advice? I can't find anything on Google about this!
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    • Profile picture of the author Irnes Jakupovic
      Not to worry Sean. I have had the same type of weird/random keywords come up on my google webmasters account. I feel it has something to do with how they crawled your content but honestly you will notice over half those weird keywords disappear when google webmasters does their update.
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  • Profile picture of the author leon_di
    Try go to the labs section and click on fetch as google.

    If these words are part of your menu then they will appear on every page, thus making increasing the number of times google finds it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jacob Martus
    Originally Posted by SeanyG View Post

    Hi guys,

    I am learning more about SEO and yesterday I was looking at the Keyword density of my site in the Google webmaster tools.

    My blog is on making money online and online business advice.

    The first two words make sense:

    business
    money

    The next few don't make sense:

    flickr
    freedom
    startup
    startupfreedom
    photo
    video
    blog
    facebook
    post
    cite

    Then Marketing is the last keyword after all of these random keywords. Not good!

    These are NOT words that I use in my content very often if at all.

    Some of these words are on my right menu: flickr, startup, freedom, startupfreedom (the name of the blog). I don't know where the rest are coming from!

    I would be very grateful if someone could bring some clarity to where these words are coming from and how I can stop Google from indexing them on my site.

    Thanks for your time and your advice!

    ~Sean
    Well if those words appear in your right menu then they are sitewide links so they appear on every page of your blog. That would definitely cause what you are seeing. I don't think it's much to fret about. If you're site is performing well, why worry about your keyword density?
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    • Profile picture of the author paulgl
      Originally Posted by Jacob Martus View Post

      Well if those words appear in your right menu then they are sitewide links so they appear on every page of your blog. That would definitely cause what you are seeing. I don't think it's much to fret about. If you're site is performing well, why worry about your keyword density?
      I have seen this on sites with a really big navigation menu with lots of links.

      It's common and nothing to worry about. Funny thing is, people think they
      can force google to think their page is about keyword A or keyword B.
      They can't. I chuckle when I read threads from people talking about choosing
      keywords and other stuff like that. You can't choose keywords. Oh you
      can, but google may think otherwise. I have said many times that checking
      your site in SERPs for keywords ends up being a complete waste of time
      in many cases. You don't know what weird searches people are doing to
      get to your page. You would be amazed.

      This problem is similar to the nonsense gotten from worries about keyword
      density. There supposedly is some magic formula. So you mention your
      chosen keyword the right number of times and think you're set. Funny,
      because you have probably used some other "keyword" a little more
      without knowing it.

      You can't force google to show your site for anything. They can't be
      forced. Many times google will change the search and steer people to
      sites they think you really want. They will list your site in searches
      that you think are unrelated, but google feels they fit best.

      Just yesterday I was doing a search, but I can't remember what it is was
      for. Google was not even showing sites with one of the words, but was
      completely changing it.

      Your best bet is to find out what words people search for to get to your
      site and try and exploit that.

      Sometimes google is just not going to bite. You really need to tweak the
      titles of each page.

      Don't get hung up on keywords for the index page. It's your sub pages
      that should be ranking well for keywords. Your index page really is a
      catch-all landing page. Make sure your anchor text for each page is
      perfect. I know this is different than most people SEO for. But think
      about it. Your index page is probably full of a hodge-podge of links
      and content.

      And one more thing. Just because google or anything else thinks it's
      a "keyword," does not mean people will be searching for that and find
      your page. Some "keywords" are complete nonsense.

      Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author ButterflyGarden
    Check to see if your site may have been hacked. I have seen modifications to Htaccess files, that redirect search engines to another site, but other visitors typing the URLs see the website as normal.
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    • Profile picture of the author Peter Gregory
      Originally Posted by ButterflyGarden View Post

      Check to see if your site may have been hacked. I have seen modifications to Htaccess files, that redirect search engines to another site, but other visitors typing the URLs see the website as normal.
      I doubt this is the cause because if it were hacked you would likely be seeing keywords like viagra, cialis, male enhancement, etc, but it would be wise to check none-the-less using the fetch as googlebot feature.

      It is most likely attributed to your navigation menu being sitewide. No matter what I wouldn't worry about it too much (once you can definitely rule out the possible hacked issue) as this is not going to effect your site performance. Make sure to stick to the basics of solid SEO and you'll be fine.
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  • Profile picture of the author SeanyG
    Awesome advice. Thanks guys!

    There is no way to remove these keywords from my being crawled by Google?
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