How Not to SEO Your Website - Keyword Density is DeadIt seems like we hear a million things a day about SEO. Do this. Don’t do that. Add this componenent…

If you’re writing your own website copy, you have to keep up with all of the latest-and-greatest Google algorithm updates. If not, you risk dooming your website to the murky depths of the SERPs. You might never. show. up. again.

It’s not always that serious, but sometimes it is.

How NOT to SEO Your Website Content

Keyword density is dead. That’s it.

While SEO like in the picture above used to work, it doesn’t anymore. In fact, pulling crap like that will get Google to push your site to the bottom of the pile until you clean up your act. It doesn’t matter if you’re writing product descriptions or populating your blog with informative posts.

Don’t stuff keywords into your content.

You still need keywords, but they won’t be the bulk of what you’re saying. Instead, they’ll be the thread that holds your piece together. Don’t bold them, italicize them or make them obnoxiously red or anything else. Just weave them into your copy naturally.

Googlebot is Smarter than it Used to Be

Semantic search required a new algorithm, and the Googlebot got smarter before the search giant rolled it out. That’s why you don’t need to stuff your copy with keywords. In fact, Google’s quality requirements almost guarantee that if your copy is packed with keywords — so much so that it looks and sounds stupid — the Googlebot will ignore it.

If someone tells you that you need a certain keyword density, tell them that’s so early 2012. While it was a good practice a while back, search now is all about giving the people what they want — and it turns out that people just don’t want to read a bunch of keyword-stuffed junk that’s not at all helpful.