Why I Hate SEO and Keyword Stuffing

Once upon a time the quality of writing actually mattered. Then along came the concept of SEO or search engine optimization of articles. That led to many "writers" stuffing keywords, sometimes irrelevant keywords, into every article they write. You don't think so?

Enter a search phrase into the Internet search engine of your choice. Now click on a few links on the first page of the results. Do you notice that those top articles are jammed with keywords? Are there any results that just make you scratch your head in puzzlement because aside from the embedded keywords they bear no relevance to the topic of your search? Do you think you've actually gotten the best quality results for your search?

Would you buy a print magazine wherein the same words and phrases were repeated over and over again in each article? Or, even if you already know you are reading an article about a particular subject would you still want the content to keep repeating the name of the subject over and over?

Maybe it's just me but when up to 5% of an article is the same word or keyword phrase the article is like a broken record skipping on the same scratch in every sentence. Keyword stuffing makes it appear that the writer is taking a patronizing tone. I don't think the average reader wants to see constant repetition taking the place of meaningful, well written content. I strongly suspect that many readers just think web writing is trash because it's written by amateurs.

I fell prey to the concept of SEO because I desperately needed to earn some money to supplement my freelance writing income. So I laced a few articles with appropriate keywords in the SEO recommended percentages and sat back to see the results. I felt embarrassed and sick to my stomach as the views began to rise far above those of all my other articles.

I regularly email my articles to friends and acquaintances and generally get gushing feedback on how marvelous they think my writing is. In response to my first SEO article I got somewhat less pleasant feedback. One friend actually asked me, "What the Hell was that, were you on drugs or something?" followed by "you sound just like a broken record, can you still edit it?" My partner read the article and also expressed his displeasure with the repetition. Needless to say, I was not too surprised. I explained to him what I was trying to accomplish and then I went back into the article and toned it down just a little.

These are my friends and loved ones, the most gentle of critics. They disliked what SEO keyword stuffing did to my articles enough to say so. I'm well aware I've written some real stinkers on occasion and they never felt they were bad enough to tell me before this.

Another friend asked me, "Why are you doing this? Shouldn't the views just come naturally if the writing is good?"

No, apparently not. SEO seems to be all that matters. Quality is meaningless, repetition is everything.

Update, March 31, 2011: Good news! Google is implementing a different algorithm to avoid rewarding blatant attempts to manipulate search engine results. I imagine we'll look back on the cluster of years wherein keyword stuffed pseudo-articles ruled the Internet and just shake our heads. It looks like everything I wrote about SEO in this editorial is on its way out and I couldn't be happier about it!