MyPE

Community Business Directory, Event Listings, News and Views from Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay

Stuff Away Sunshine

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Back in the day when Yahoo was still king of the throne and websites were designed with nasty table layouts, Ariel or Comic Sans fonts and just really crappy colours you could get away with keyword stuffing. You could stuff your site with all the keywords you could think of and become king of the hill in no time.

And today? Nope, no more keyword stuffing. Today the story is much different, Google runs the show and with good reason. If you want to be on top of the ranks, you will have to earn your way. The reason Google is known as the “Search Giant” is mainly due to it’s very clever algorithm. Now Google often makes changes to it’s algorithm and yes, at times it does cause some disruption with websites that have worked hard to get to the top. There are however some things in this algorithm that do not change but rather get improved.

One of the things that Google looks for when crawling a website is whether or not you are stuffing your site with keywords. Content is king, but compiling your content out of just keyword is BAD! Keyword stuffing is considered to be an unethical search engine optimisation (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. When you stuff your web page with keywords Google WILL pick up on it.

The reason I have brought up this topic of keyword stuffing is because I have come across a couple of websites designed by Port Elizabeth based web design agencies that are guilty of keyword stuffing on their clients websites. WAKE UP! You are not only damaging your reputation, but also the reputation of your clients and our fair city.

I can only think of two reasons why a web designer would make use of keyword stuffing:

  • One; they know NOTHING about search engine optimisation and
  • Two; They can’t read.

Google has a useful section called “Webmaster Guidelines“. Go and READ IT!

Editors Notes: Writing only for the Search Engines is like fornicating with an androgynous 1950’s style robot – pointless, mechanical, unsatisfying and a waste of time.

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.