Looks like keyword stuffing, but it isn't
-
(There was a similar older question on the forum, but it wasn't really answered so please forgive me if this looks like a repeated question)
Looks like keyword stuffing, but it isn't
We have a massive web store with 80k "commodity products" (and this amount will only increase) which aren't sold the same way normal products are sold (i.e. by brand and model). Commodity products are sold by specification, therefore their product names are actually descriptions of the product. In our case, industrial fasteners (nuts, bolts, washers, screws, etc) sold in bulk.
If you click on the link below, you will see that our catalog involves a tremendous amount of repetition, where the products all appear the same, but are varying by dimensions and/or package quantities. The solutions the web store software offers to solve this problem cause issues for us (i.e. displaying the dimensions and quantities ONLY under a common header) but more importantly, we are concerned that search engines are seeing this as keyword stuffing and penalizing the pages.
http://www.aspenfasteners.com/Step-Bolts-Inch-Standard-s/407.htm
If we can't change the presentation of the page, should we be concerned and if so, how do we let a search engine know that the repetition is legitimate?
-
Thanks, Hurf. Thanks for the excellent reply. Unfortunately, with Volusion as our web-store we don't have the option of displaying anything but the full product name on listings by category unless we engage a Volusion partner to modify our store or we migrate 80K products to a different and more complex product/option structuring model.
For the sake of the clients, 12-products-per-page would be maddening. Text search is very ineffective when it comes to parsing product dimensions, so we produce long listings, sorted by size so the user can quickly locate their product.
In the short term, I think it makes most sense to pay for custom programming to reduce the product description to just the dimension and quantity when displayed on a category page.
-
I did a quick search for 'step bolts". This was the number one, organic result (in Google UK) - but it's a US store.
The first thing I note (without considering structural differences) is that they present only 12 products per page, whereas you present a maximum of **500. **
**More products on the category page equals more repetition of the same keywords. **
If you are concerned about keyword stuffing, this would be the very first change I'd make, not least to reduce the time it takes for the site to return the results - especially where you have more products present. Reducing the results shown to 12, for example, will greatly reduce the number of references to the category page while still delivering the right results to potential buyers. When you've got them on site, they can see that the page is aligned with their search and navigate through the results page as required.
I've used On-Page Grader on their site (as above) and they get a B grade:
It shows 31 references to the keyphrase 'Step Bolts' with 15 of those in the body text.
Your category page shows 49 overall, with 45 in the body alone (you haven't used them in ALT tags).
So, both of you have been flagged (by Moz's grader) to have used keyword stuffing. However, they still rank number one organically for this phrase. I guess your competitors aren't overly concerned with the results of the Moz On-Page Grader. Perhaps, if you, make the adjustment to the number of results you return on your category page, you wouldn't need to concern yourself with it too much either?
I hope that helps.
Good Luck!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Does google look at H3 tags?
I've had someone tell me that google doesn't pay attention to H3 tags -- only H1 and H2. I haven't found much online to back this up or discredit it; thought I'd ask the Moz community!
Technical SEO | | LivDetrick5 -
Google has deindexed a page it thinks is set to 'noindex', but is in fact still set to 'index'
A page on our WordPress powered website has had an error message thrown up in GSC to say it is included in the sitemap but set to 'noindex'. The page has also been removed from Google's search results. Page is https://www.onlinemortgageadvisor.co.uk/bad-credit-mortgages/how-to-get-a-mortgage-with-bad-credit/ Looking at the page code, plus using Screaming Frog and Ahrefs crawlers, the page is very clearly still set to 'index'. The SEO plugin we use has not been changed to 'noindex' the page. I have asked for it to be reindexed via GSC but I'm concerned why Google thinks this page was asked to be noindexed. Can anyone help with this one? Has anyone seen this before, been hit with this recently, got any advice...?
Technical SEO | | d.bird0 -
SERP result (URL) doesn't change after a 301
A couple of months ago there was a result in Google for our branded search term which wasn't the 'official' URL, actually the result shown in the SERP was www.mycompany-ip.nl. We've applied a 301 redirect of this URL to the 'official' URL which is a subdomain: department.mycompany.nl. From Google the redirect is obviously working, but up until now, I don't see Google replacing the incorrect URL by the correct URL. I am wondering what to do to make the result correct. André
Technical SEO | | ConclusionDigital0 -
Webmaster tools Hentry showing pages that don't exist
In Webmaster Tools I have a ton of pages listed under Structured Data >> Hentry. These pages are not on my website and I don't know where they are coming from. I redid the site for someone and perhaps they are from the old site. How do I find and delete these? Thank you Rena
Technical SEO | | renalynd270 -
IT's Hurt My Rank?HELP!!!
hi,guys,john here, i just began use the MOZ service several days ago, recently i noticed one thing that one keyword on the first google search result page, but when i done some external links,the rank down from 1 to 8, i think may be the bad quality external links caused the rank down. so my question,should i delete the bad quality links or build more better quality links? which is better for me. easy to delete the bad links and hard to build high quality links. so what's your better opinion,guys? thanks John
Technical SEO | | smokstore0 -
What was the Google 'update' on 31st March?
Hi all. I looked back and saw that there was an update shown in 'Search Analytics' in Webmaster Tools a few weeks before the Mobile algorithm update. Not been able to find any mention of it and what it did so thought I'd check in here. ps. Also, this is a 90 day stretch and shows that our rankings have taken a hit since the mobile algorithm update. Interesting stuff (see image below) 4rJMU9e.jpg?1
Technical SEO | | RobFD0 -
301 Redirect to add juice from Keyword A to Keyword B
Here's our situation: Our company sells Employee HANDBOOKS (the book that explains to employees how the company itself is run, more or less). That's the technically correct term for them. However, many people use this term interchangeably with Employee MANUALS. Employee MANUALS are actually slightly different. (they're more specific, usually a list of common office policies and procedures and how to do them) When doing Keyword research, we learned that many, many people search for Employee MANUALS when they actually are interested in an employee HANDBOOK. We've got our page optimized for the Keyword Employee HANDBOOKS, because in our copy we always refer to it as such. Here's my question: Would it be "cloacking" or some other blackhat nonsense if we did this: #1. Take a copy of the current page, and make a second page for it with a slightly different URL, but optimize the SEO-relevant parts for the phrase Employee MANUAL. #2. That page will also include a 301-redirect towards the original page, which is identical except the SEO bits are optimized for Employee HANDBOOKS. My understanding here is that we'd get the SEO juice from the phrase Employee Manual, without actually having to do the upkeep on two different pages. We also avoid having to have a random page SEO optimized for an improper term just because of the general confusion about what the product is called. Are we on the right track here? Or is this going to annoy Google, or not have the result I'm predicting? Any insight is appreciated!
Technical SEO | | CEDRSolutions0 -
Meta Title Keywords and Company name
Currently our meta title says "Network Security Audit | Pivot Point Security" which is pretty broad considering how many services we offer. In trying to restructure our keywords, marketing and SEO focus, I came up with a new title. The problem I have is figuring out which keywords to use in the title, and with a company name with 3 words - I am running out of room. The new title idea is "Information Security Assessments - Penetration Testing | Pivot Point Security" So my questions are the following. Do I need to put the company name? Should I choose different keywords? I'm sort of at a stand still trying to figure out the best possible title since meta keywords or description won't really help ranking.
Technical SEO | | pivotpointsecurity0