Search engines utilize highly complex algorithms to return search results. The search engine’s goal is to return the best matching, highest quality results. This means filtering out those pages that have little relevance to the intended search. Too often, websites will use spamming tactics to bring visitors to their site. Two such spamming methods are keyword stuffing and keyword stacking.
Keyword stuffing refers to placing text that is not relevant to the article into Cascading Style Sheet layers or the alternative text of a non-visible graphic image. The following is an example of keyword stuffing on an image:
<img src=”images/clear.gif” alt=”big dog big dogs Big Dogs BIG DOGS”/>
Search engines will consider this excess text as spam. It is clearly not necessary and has been placed to artificially boost ranking.
There are acceptable ways to label images. The following is an example of relevant text and proper use of keywords:
<img src=”images/clear.gif” alt=”Big Dog – photo”/>
Keyword stacking is the process of boosting a web page’s relevancy in search engines by repeating a keyword or phrase over and over. Here is an example of keyword stacking:
big dog big dog big dog big dog big dog big dog dog dog dog dog
Keyword stacking is seen most often in title tags, meta tags, and invisible text. It is obviously not reasonable or relevant. It is another form of search engine spam. Reputable websites understand and avoid these practices.
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