Many content creators have wisely (and not so wisely) used keyword practices as a part of their content marketing strategy over the years. What began with good intentions to increase their ability to be searched by their target audiences soon became a hotbed of questionable black hat SEO tactics as content creators (knowingly and unknowingly) allowed themselves to be drawn in by poor “quick ‘n easy” promises. Let’s take a closer look:

• Keywords Discovered: “Hey, these keywords are neat and helped me show up on page one. I think I will use more of them.”
• Keyword Clouds: “I’ll place a widget ‘cloud’ of words on my page to help search engines understand what my page is all about. Look! I can even make the words spin and interact with users!”
• Keyword Glut: “I NEED MORE KEYWORDS! I’ll just stuff them here, there, everywhere and then I will rule the search – mwhahahahaha!”
• Keywords Spun: “Quantity is so much better than quality! I’ll write dozens of articles covering the same topic and alter the text ever so slightly. It’s not exactly identical, but it targets the same keywords at least.”
• Keywords Regulated: “STOP! This is the keyword police. Your content is under arrest. You are allowed one keyword or keyword phrase for every one hundred words. Failure to comply will result in suspension and de-indexing.”
• Keywords Evolved.