Fair warning — opinionated rant ahead.
Yesterday someone I’m working with on a real estate blog sent me a link, and asked me:
Is this kind of writing – a blog stuffed full of key words – a good thing?
The blog post in question contained 19 references to “YourCity Realtor” or “YourCity State real estate”.
And no, I’m not going to link to the specific blog. My intent isn’t to point out one particular blog, but rather the practice of “keyword stuffing” that I see becoming more prevalent every day.
Reading a 557 word post that contains 19 references to “City real estate” is a painful excrutiating process. I can only assume that writers who do this think they are “doing SEO” on their blog posts.
Google is smart. It doesn’t need to see “Phoenix Realtor” (for example only) nineteen times to figure out your post is about a Phoenix Realtor. Once or twice should suffice. Better yet, write multiple posts with your choice of keywords scattered about.
Maybe the folks who practice this style should step away from the keyboard and and ask themselves this question — Am I writing for the reader, or the search engines?
Search engines don’t buy houses. Yeah yeah, I know — you have to be found in search engines to get readers. But there is something called balance people. You can be #1 in the universe for your chosen search term, but if people get to your site and see an obvious attempt to shove YOUR CITY REALTOR!! in their face over and over and over and over, said people are quite likely to run away screaming. And they won’t be screaming your name or running to the phone.
This particular blog was designed by the Real Estate Tomato team. No I am not here to bash Jim Cronin or the Tomato. For the record, I have a great deal of respect for Jim. He is very open and shares ideas freely. And the Tomato produces some of the most visually stunning blogs on the planet. They also provide extensive training to their clients. I’ve never taken the training, so I can only hope that they aren’t teaching and advocating jamming blogs full of repetitive keywords that render a post practically unreadable.
More annoying to me (by far) than wading through all the keywords is what appears to be going on in the comments section of said blog. I see comment after comment from other bloggers (also running Tomato blogs – coincidence? That’s hard to fathom) who are entering comments with the same keyword in them as the main post. Come on folks. This scheme is so transparent it’s ridiculous. I have 3,629 comments on my blog and don’t recall ever seeing something like:
The Phoenix real estate market is fortunate to have a Phoenix realtor like you Jay!
Good grief. Follow these commenters around and you’ll see them all leaving keyword laden comments on each others blogs. Repeatedly. Surely the folks at the Tomato aren’t suggesting their clients do this? Please say it ain’t so.
If you are considering cramming a post full of keywords please just stop and think about it for a second. Write your post and then sit back and read it. Read it out loud. Does it sound like you? Does it sound like something you’d say to someone sitting right next to you? Or does it sound like you’re trying to manipulate the search engines? Have you read Google’s Webmaster Guidelines? Specifically the “quality guidelines“? They contain these nuggets of wisdom:
Make pages for users, not for search engines.
Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you’d feel comfortable explaining what you’ve done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, “Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn’t exist?”
Would you really include the same keyword 19 times in one post if the search engines didn’t exist? Would you really ask your friends to stop by and leave keyworded comments if the search engines didn’t exist?
Christina Ethridge says:
Why Jay, of course it’s only natural for everyone to include a keyword slammed post(s).
NOT.
January 4, 2008 — 2:15 pm
Eric Bramlett says:
Jay – I feel your pain. You’re describing what we typically describe as “SEO Tunnel Vision.” This feed-the-bot & forget-the-human mentality does little for your SEO, and you end up upside down on your efforts when you factor in the lost conversion.
January 4, 2008 — 2:15 pm
Tony says:
Great post about keywords, Jay.
The balance of using keywords properly for SEO and starting to keyword stuff is key. Keywords are not keywords without reason… I recall reading an otherwise keyword free post about SEO keywords that keyword stuffing of specific keywords quickly comes to the attention of key Google keyword stuffing algorithms (that look at all words and other tag stuff). When the ratio of keywords to non-keywords exceeds some magic keyword threshold, not only can posts become quite stuffy for readers but your keyword stuffed post might not show up in keyword-based search results when visitors type in those keywords.
If I didnt stuff to do and my keys stuffed in my hands, I’d write a bit more on the topic.
Word 🙂
Tony
January 4, 2008 — 2:22 pm
jmac says:
Jay,
It is hard enough to just sit and let my fingers ramble. Don’t expect me to have a “game plan”. I have not yet figured out “key words”. I think mine have always been – I’m sorry or I love you. Now those are key words to live by.
January 4, 2008 — 2:33 pm
Norm Fisher says:
The Phoenix real estate market is fortunate to have a Phoenix realtor like you Jay selling Phoenix homes including condos, houses and investment property!
and I really mean that Jay. 🙂
January 4, 2008 — 2:33 pm
monika says:
Key word stuffing seems to be running rampart. That and blog posts written in the third person really irritate me. I read one where the post author referred to themselves by name 4 times on one paragraph…talk about annoying.
January 4, 2008 — 6:15 pm
Derek says:
I don’t mind the mention of your city Realtor as much. What I get kicks out of the most is seeing all those Top Agent sites that Russell often mentions where the agent is the top agent in such and such state and is listed as your top source for residential real estate, condos, vacant land, beach front property and a bunch of other terms.
I got a kick out of seeing an agent here in the Carolinas being the the source for beach front properties when he was located out in the mountains, some 200 miles away.
Another thing that I get kicks out of is all those little letters besides the agents names. I being an agent myself don’t know what half of them mean. If I can’t figure them out,, how in the heck is a consumer going to figure them out.
Just imagine me trying to sign my name. I’ll run out of paper if I put all my training down. One more year of college and I’ll have been in this thing 10 years so go figure what my name will look like.
January 4, 2008 — 7:18 pm
Ardell says:
I remember advising against keyword stuffing when I was a Coach of Project Blogger and getting bashed for opposing the views of those teaching new bloggers to stuff, stuff, stuff away! Some people were very angry with my opposing advices.
Glad to see that keyword stuffing is not an honored method.
January 4, 2008 — 9:48 pm
Paula Henry says:
Things that make you go Hmmmmmm…….
January 4, 2008 — 10:06 pm
Jim Cronin says:
Jay,
Excellent piece on a concern for keyword stuffing in posts and comments.
I have to apologize for my tardiness to this post, I have been without power here in Northern CA for the day from a crazy rain storm. On a side note it was a nice change; living by candlelight.
The only response I have to this matter that you have pulled me in to, is that neither myself, nor our training course is responsible. I wrote the ‘book’ we train from (10 classes, 13 hours), and no where in these courses does it encourage overstuffing blog posts nor comments with desired keywords. Solid, clean SEO, certainly. Google Gaming, black-hat, never.
My guess as to where this trend you have stumbled upon may have evolved from: We have a very strong community of Tomato Bloggers (150+) whom after ‘graduating’ our program, support each other online both socially and educationally. All sorts of ideas for support and marketing are discussed on a private forum that we’ve provided, but, yet they maintain.
I think that what you have uncovered is a case of “blogger see, blogger do.”
Although the service we provide does not entail ongoing vigilant ‘policing’ of our graduates’ efforts, this may be a matter worth addressing in the same private forum where it may have hatched.
That said, I don’t know that I agree 100% with your (labeled) rant. Why, because, like an agnostic chooses to have faith in not knowing, I feel one must approach ‘what works in Google’ the same way. We can nearly all agree what is black and white… it’s that gray area that gets us all hot and bothered.
We are not training clients to behave in the manner you find questionable, so you can take comfort in that. I take comfort in knowing that their is a group of tomato bloggers that has grown outside of my control. Imagine just what trouble they will cause when there are thousands of them.
Thanks for the heads up, though. I’ll do my best to let them know that there is a concern.
January 4, 2008 — 11:09 pm
Jay Thompson says:
Jim –
Thank you for your thoughtful response, and for not taking what I was saying as a personal attack. I *am* glad to hear that you aren’t training what I see as questionable SEO tactics (that being said, you are of course free to train however you like – who the heck am I to tell you how to train or run your business).
I think it’s great that you have a sharing community, and it’s great that they help each other out. There is certainly nothing wrong with that.
Can’t expect you (or anyone) to police these folks, and experimenting in a police-free blogworld is a good thing IMHO.
I just think these folks have gone too far. The keywords in the comments is most disturbing to me because it’s such an obvious gaming tactic. It may not be pure black-hat, but it’s certainly gray… dark gray IMHO.
As a fellow blogger (albeit Tomatoless) I have concerns that practices like keyword stuffing and “comment circles” (for lack of a better term) could wind up tarnishing all real estate blogs. Perception means a lot inside and outside the blogiverse, and Lord knows the general public doesn’t have the greatest perception of real estate agents to begin with. I’d rather not the group in general get a “bad rep” on the Internet. And yes, that can happen with just a few setting a questionable example. Google and Yahoo both have in the past penalized real estate site providers/vendors wholesale and several noted SEO experts have singled out real estate websites in particular for things like linking schemes. I’d rather not see that happen to real estate blogs… who knows if it would, but Google can work in mysterious ways and it’s certainly possible.
January 5, 2008 — 12:09 am
Ann Cummings says:
I’m with you about all the stuffing I see on some blogs. I read a post very recently where every other sentence had the author’s city and his name in them, and he had also combined ‘real estate’ in there as well. When I stepped back and actually looked at the article as a consumer would, it was awful. Those kinds of posts are the ‘all about me’ type that I really don’t like reading, and even with limited knowledge about keyword use, I would think most reading would know exactly what people who do that are doing – YUCK!
January 5, 2008 — 5:32 am
Charleston real estate blog says:
this is what happens when you come late to the party, Norm got here first with the same comment I wanted to make.
January 5, 2008 — 6:08 am
Kris Berg says:
Yea, Jay! I agree with you 100%! I have tried to say this before, but your post was much more eloquent and direct. But then, what do I know? The bloggers who are subscribing to the keyword-packing approach continue to insist that they enjoy gobs and bizillions of new clients as a result. Perhaps I am in denial, but I refuse to believe that our readers can’t see through this. I am personally insulted when I visit the types of blogs your refer to; I have got to believe that the vast majority of consumers will have a similar reaction.
I’ll take my chances with honest content. If it is blatant manipulation that is the key to blogging success, then I will remain happily in relative anonymity. As Ann said so beautifully, YUCK!
January 5, 2008 — 10:02 am
Andy Scherer says:
Jay,
Since I just started on my own blog, I can say that this was extremely helpful information. I try to not go overboard with the keyword usage, but sometimes it just comes out in the content. I guess I should start using the “synonyms” section of my word document prior to publishing.
Either way, thanks for providing that information, Jay!
January 5, 2008 — 10:26 am
Sandi Bauman says:
Jay,
As a newer Tomato blogger (3 months old), I have to say I read your article and comments with great interest and some dismay. I appreciate your clear point of view.
Coincidently, I received a comment on this very subject in relation to my blog. A quick check revealed that I only had 5 keywords registering above the 1% mark of my total content. I approached my mentors at the Tomato, concerned that my keyword density was questionable. The response? “…Your keyword density is perfect, and it doesn’t look unnatural. Keep up the good work!!!”
Hmmm… what’s a blogger to do?? Obviously, there’s no making everyone happy. I most definitely will take extra care to see that my posts are highly readable, while balancing basic SEO. Live and learn.
I’m personally finding it a huge challenge to sort through conflicting opinions and vast amounts of information available on blogging, while trying to maintain a healthy business of actually SELLING real estate. I hope to be open-minded enough to recognize productive new trends and techniques as they come along, while maintaining an ability to determine those that I should steer clear of.
January 5, 2008 — 3:19 pm
Christina Ethridge says:
Sandi, I simply ignore it all. I write long posts, short posts, report on stats, blog about listings, reference an article with no commentary on my side, etc. In other words, I write for MY clients, not anyone else’s idea of what my clients want. My clients prefer hard numbers (stats) and information that would influence their decision when it comes to buying / selling (most of my clients are investors or second-home owners). I don’t ‘engineer’ my posts (ie keyword spamming, etc), I write a bit ‘louder’ than I speak and I “just do it”. The one thing I have learned is “blogiquette” and I do make sure that there is one reference to one at least one keyword either in the title of my post or the post itself. I don’t worry about any more than that.
I watch what my readers are looking for. I talk with my readers (yes, they call about information and I ask them what they liked, what they’d like to see more of, etc). This is one of the main reasons I lean more towards the stat/market report side – my readers want that and have shown me they want that.
January 5, 2008 — 3:53 pm
Chantal says:
Jay, I’ll second Norm:
“The Phoenix real estate market is fortunate to have a Phoenix realtor like you Jay!”
Not only that, other realtors like myself are fortunate to have a guy like you around. I am always learning from your posts. Thank you and Happy New Year!
January 5, 2008 — 6:27 pm
CJ, Broker in L A, CA says:
Agreed. It rankles. I don’t do it, I don’t like it. But here’s a question, the answer to which I do not know. What about Greg’s “ninety-and-nine”? I wonder if people in the silent masses even notice, or if they do notice, do they even care?
January 5, 2008 — 6:56 pm
Kris Berg says:
CJ, I clearly am not without bias. However, I am a consumer and a real estate agent, so I’ll bite. First, how can anyone not notice, really? As to the “care” part and for me, it tells me a lot about the person on the sending side. If the writer can pull off a keyword-packed article that also and primarily informs, entertains, and adds value, then I am less likely to notice and a lot more forgiving if I do. There you have a win-win. If, on the other hand, I sense a generic, elementary, canned post written for the sake of keywords alone, and I am left with the sense that I have stumbled on nothing but a commercial announcement, I do care and I am offended. Most importantly, I’m moving on.
That’s just me. I could be wrong.
January 5, 2008 — 8:22 pm
Brian Brady says:
Can someone point me to an example of an offensive post?
January 5, 2008 — 10:52 pm
Teresa Boardman says:
There is a group of re bloggers who have become obsessed with “gaming” they believe in traffic, which is useless if it doesn’t result in business, they beleive in keyword stuffing and they play together to “help” each other. I think everyone is looking for a magical short cut. There are no short buts. re blogs take imagination, creativity, dedication, photographic skills and a lot of hard work. Google will bring people to a blog but it is us to the blogger to give them a reason to stay, or to come back and keep reading. Keywords alone will not do that.
January 6, 2008 — 6:52 am
Brian Brady says:
“There is a group of re bloggers who have become obsessed with “gaming” they believe in traffic”
Can you point that group out to us, Teresa, so we might better learn how to avoid that “gaming”?
January 6, 2008 — 9:08 am
CJ, Broker in L A, CA says:
Brian, the problem with naming names and pointing fingers is that in many cases, the offending blogger is someone we actually know and like.
But here are a few annoying snippets with names and cities removed:
“Selling your XXCity NameXX Homes does not have to become a…”
…”it is my job to market and sell your XXCity NameXX Home..”
…”assist you in all of your XXCity NameXX CA Real Estate transactions. XXAgent NameXX is a Top XXCity NameXX REALTOR®….”
I know, I know, you’ll probably say this is just good marketing, but repeated often enough it does begin to grind on those of us with delicate sensibilities.
January 7, 2008 — 7:03 am
Brian Brady says:
“Brian, the problem with naming names and pointing fingers is that in many cases, the offending blogger is someone we actually know and like.”
Good point, CJ. I have often experimented with keyword rich content (you know that) to see just what does and just what doesn’t seem readable.
Here’s the problem: The “limits” for keyword density often exceed the bounds of good copy. So, where do we draw the line? Bloggers are a rare breed; most are well-read and superior writers. So, while Jay, Kris or Teresa might think copy is “keyword stacked”, the average reader may not notice.
So, who’s the boss? The consumer, of course.
Here’s my test: I e-mail a post to 3-5 smart people and ask for criticism (not in our industry). Surprisingly, readers don’t notice the keyword rich content until you point it out. Sometimes, it’s just plain blatant.
Writing copy for a weblog, indexed for SEO is hard work. Balancing the need for keyword rich phrases, so that it is indexed for proper SEO, with flowing prose is difficult. Bloggers are not always the best critics.
It’s kind of like the first direct mail piece I wrote. Mr. Doyle, my Freshman English teacher would have loved it. The man who taught me how to write copy hated it. The most effective copy has slang in it; Mr. Doyle would have hated it.
My skin is thick. I overreach but I reject the premise that writing keyword rich text hurts you. Criticism is welcome.
January 7, 2008 — 3:38 pm
Jay Thompson says:
Brian – I also hesitate to “name names” – which is why I didn’t link to any specific blogs in this post. (i did link to Jim, because I feel like I “know” him and he’d take the feedback well).
“Keyword rich” is one thing, “Keyword overkill” is entirely different, as is a “comment circle” that is *nothing* but an attempt to influence search positioning.
“So, who’s the boss? The consumer, of course.”
Quite true.
I still have to say that a blog can get *superior* search results with a natural writing style and making almost no effort to add keywords. There certainly isn’t any redeeming value in saying the same words 19 times in one post…
January 7, 2008 — 3:57 pm
Halfdeck says:
What annoys me as much as keyword stuffing is link stuffing, where a realtor writes a blog post, then embed a link to one of his/her property pages he wants to rank higher using keyword-stuffed anchor text (e.g. “Phoenix real estate agent”). Linking to a previous blog post with relevant anchor text I can understand, but linking to a property listing is just silly.
January 9, 2008 — 7:13 am
Karen Goodman says:
I’ve never actually figured out how to write a post with good content and good writing style while worrying about keywords too.
I write out my entire post focusing on the tone I want to set and the message I want to get across. Then, I go back and proofread it looking for silly mistakes and clumsy language. If I notice a place that I can tweak so that I can get a keyword in where it still sounds natural, I’ll make the change. Otherwise, I just let it go.
Will anyone ever find me on Google? So far, I’ve had a post on the recent microwave recall that got tons of hits, though these visitors are very unlikely to ever turn into clients. The rest of my posts that were found by the search engine were definately through the long tail, not major keywords.
I care more that my posts present me well to my SOI list and prospective clients than creating lots of traffic from people that won’t ever turn into clients.
January 12, 2008 — 7:35 am
Halfdeck says:
“Will anyone ever find me on Google? So far, I’ve had a post on the recent microwave recall that got tons of hits, though these visitors are very unlikely to ever turn into clients.”
I blog randomly, which is one reason why I end up with unfocused search traffic on my blog. I think its important to sit down and spend an hour or two planning your blog content strategy, whether you’re planning topics around keyword research or the current buzz. All you really need to optimize is your title tag (though of course other stuff does also help), so just by talking about the “right” topics, you can increase targetted search traffic.
January 12, 2008 — 8:35 pm
Karen Goodman says:
I agree completely that you should have a focus for your blog topics so your readers know what to expect. The goal of my blog is to develop a primer on the basic real estate issues so that when a new client finds me, they can read the archives and get educated on things that they should know. My posts tend to focus around pricing, supply/demand, inspection issues, home improvement, etc.
The 2nd focus is to have regular market updates with timley data. Anyone that is looking to be entertained or read about the latest controversy will get bored and leave, but folks that are getting serious about buying or selling should find the information helpful…and will hopefully then call me.
As a real estate blogger that blogging to build my business, I think it is important to think about who you are targeting. I don’t really care about getting tons of visitors if they are mostly from other bloggers or people that will never come buy a house in St. Louis. I want potential relo and local people. Of course, anyone is welcome to stop by…but I think it is important to remember your purpose, and being the biggest may not turn visitors into commission checks.
January 13, 2008 — 7:54 am
Charles Woodall says:
As a client of the Real Estate Tomato, I can vouch for Jim in that neither he nor his group teach this stuff. What I got out of the training was to use keywords when they fit what you are trying to say, leave comments on other blogs but only if they contribute to the discussion, and write for your readers, not the search engines.
I feel like I have done as instructed, but like Sandi would appreciate any input. Granted, I have allowed some comments that fit what you are describing and probably even left a couple here or there. No more. Your post, along with our recent rise to the top of Google, has proven to me that I don’t have to do things that seem unnatural to succeed in my blogging efforts.
I think it is just a case of SEO tunnel vision, as someone pointed out. Ultimately, my blogging success will be determined by the number of clients generated, not by search engine rank. Losing site of that will likely cause a quick end to some folks blogging.
January 17, 2008 — 11:55 am