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Law Firm Sites Blog

Can I overdo my SEO?

April, 04 2013
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Jo Stephens
seo

When people learn about SEO, they think, “Great, I’ll get all of my website visitors this way!” If SEO keywords work to organically drive traffic back to your website, than the more, the better, right? Not exactly. Overusing SEO is termed “keyword stuffing” and it can actually do more harm than good. For example, if you’re using SEO in your lawyer website, you could turn away potential clients instead of attract them.

There’s a thin line between targeting with Search Engine Optimization and crossing over to keyword stuffing. Especially when it comes to law firm website design. You can easily tell if a web page is stuffed with keywords by simply reading the text. Are there words or phrases used over and over, sometimes in very unnatural ways? Then the content creator is trying to squeeze too much SEO where it doesn’t fit.

You may think that the more times your website repeats a phrase, the higher the page will be ranked in search engines. However, Google is savvy to this approach and actually penalizes websites that have over-optimized SEO. On top of that, once a user has finally found your website, keyword stuffing can turn them off. If you’ve ever read an article that’s utilized too much SEO, you know that it’s practically unreadable, or at best, not enjoyable.

How can you avoid this?

By hiring a real writer to draft your content. Everything on your website should be written in a natural tone. Most of the time, SEO will end up in the content simply because you’re writing on a certain topic. If it doesn’t, a professional writer will know how to go back through the text and sprinkle in SEO here and there in ways that sound completely natural.

The best web pages on the Internet don’t even look like they’ve been optimized for Search Engine Optimization. But, in fact, they really have. When done well, a website will have enough Search Engine Optimization to get users there and then well written content to keep visitors on your site. Also, quality content writers know how to use variations of a keyword to attract even more visitors.

Do you want to see your site with a new look?