Has SEO overrun over your website?
It’s pretty simple, really.
Branded searches are far and away the most effective searches. That means if you deliver your Brand in external communications, people are likely to come looking for you, not just people who look like you.
Which is kind of the idea.
It’s not that you should ignore the potential of SEO. It’s just that maybe it’s not a good idea to let SEO-driven web copy overrun your website. The point, after all, is to communicate. And using 12 words when five will do, makes communicating more difficult. Especially, for example, if you're using some of them over and over in an attempt to manipulate search engines. Keyword stuffing is a big mistake and can actually hurt your SEO performance. So pace yourself.
There's this from an article in Search Engine Watch last year (emphasis added):
"Search engines are in the business of connecting an audience with the content that will satisfy their search intentions, which means they use algorithms that do their very best to favor high-quality, informative content. When content isn’t written for a human audience, but is instead structured to game an algorithm, the result is usually a spammy and artificial read that doesn’t serve a site visitor’s needs and (in almost all cases) doesn’t deserve their attention.
"Consequently, keyword stuffing is rightfully considered a black hat technique that goes against SEO best practices."
Say you’re a South Florida hotel. Don't load up on "South Florida" ticklers, like mentioning that you’re in South Florida and the weather in South Florida is pretty terrific and there are great restaurants in South Florida and the whole family is gonna love it in South Florida and South Florida is easy to get to and those South Florida beaches . . . hoo boy!
Never mind the problems keyword stuffing presents, is that sort of thing going to draw people to your property?
And then there are the sites full of references to “downtown” or “center city” when the property, well . . . isn’t. That’s not even honest.
There’s real value in SEO, just don’t count on it for everything and don’t turn your website into a word-heavy SEO repository. Because your primary target ought to be people, not algorithms.
And you reach people with advertising, PR and social media.
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