Creeper Words – Scary for Keyword Optimization

Just in time for Halloween! Creeper words are words that naturally come up in writing about a topic but are conflicting with the keyword phrase that you are optimizing for. I have a classic example. I had a client who I wrote content for regarding their office locations. We were optimizing for what the business did and the geographic location of the branch. I sent the copy over to them for editing and approval. When the copy returned, I noticed multiple additions of the word team. I checked out the density, not surprisingly team was 6%. To a search engine, the page was about ‘team’, not the originally chosen keyword phrase.

So I went back to my client and explained the situation. They of course wanted to used the term because they run their business as a team and felt that it was a selling point to potential clients. Once they understood the SEO implications, they agreed to remove the additional uses. We removed most of the occurrences but maintained language that still got the team point across.

You have to be just as careful about the words you choose to write about as the words you use without thinking. Every topic has creeper words and you will discover them as soon as you start writing if you pay attention. Remaining with the example, if the client is insistent about the theme of team, it is important to convey the feeling of the word, without actually using it. Using phrases, like “we work together” and “when our expertise combines you get unbeatable services” gets the message across without spelling it out. This will appease the client and maintain your search engine optimized copy.

Tagged as: copywriting, keyword density, search engine optimization