Choosing Keywords: Practices to Avoid
November 9, 1998
A common practice in the past was to include your keywords inside
HTML comment tags.
<-- placing a long list of essentially hidden keywords here
-->
It was thought this would help raise your site's ranking in a
search engine. The search engines in their constant battle to defeat
spamdexing are on to this technique and you are in peril of losing
your rank or being banned from the search engine altogether if
you use this.
Another practice was to include hidden keywords within the text
of the site with the text colour the same as the background of
the website. This of course is not invisible to search engine's
spiders, or to lynx browsers for that matter. The search engines are
also penalizing website owners for using this. The only exception is
Excite, which as of this writing, was still allowing this practice;
they could of course change their mind any time.
Make sure that your keywords reflect what is actually in your
website. Although it might be tempting to include some of the most
searched for words, search engines are also watching for this, and
will drop your ranking.
Several search engines, in an attempt to serve relevant results
to searchers, ignore altogether certain words. The most ignored words
include - web, and html. Using these words as one of your keywords
is a waste!
Also to be avoided is the use of another business' trademarks.
It may result in a legal tangle for you. Trademark law is invoked
if you use another companies registered trademark in a way the
might confuse consumers. Companies can make an argument if you
use their trademarked words in your keywords.
Additional Resources
Choosing Keywords: Using Your Keywords
Choosing Keywords
Choosing Keywords: Buying Keywords
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