Why Stuffing is Bad—For You and Your Website.

Thanksgiving has come and gone. We have stuffed our faces, watched an Eagles demolition of Dallas, and probably took a nap. Now, it’s back to work. But let’s reminisce over that meal one more time. Turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, cranberry sauce, stuffing and what have you. The meal of the year. You cooked for more people than you normally do, so was the turkey safe? Did you cook the stuffing inside the turkey?

There are common health risks associated with cooking stuffing inside the turkey. The interior of the turkey’s cavity can cause salmonella and other bacteria to arise if you’re not careful. If your tradition of stuffing starts this way, in years to come you must make sure that you’re cooking the stuffing safely. We cook it separately to avoid this issue altogether. If you can’t fathom cooking the stuffing separately, there’s just one tip I have to avoid the ingestion of bacteria: don’t stuff the turkey until right before it goes into the oven. You won’t risk the cavity of the turkey seeping into the stuffing as it sits overnight.

I’d avoid stuffing the turkey altogether. You can cook the same mixture of bread, eggs, and vegetables in a separate dish where it will taste the same. As an internet marketing professional, let’s just say you shouldn’t stuff your website either. With keywords, that is.

Stuffing multiple keywords into one page of your website is poison in itself. Why? Search engines won’t know what your page is about if there are keywords stuffed into the page about 3 different services or products that you offer. You won’t rank and you won’t get found. It’s manipulation. Chances are, you just want to be found relevant and increase your traffic, even if you offer no value on your webpages.

Much like you should cook the stuffing separate from the turkey, you should cook up your keywords on separate pages. Every service you offer, create a separate webpage so Google knows exactly what that page is about. Google now knows when it’s being manipulated, so don’t even try it. You’ll get penalized and have to work overtime to become relevant in searches again. Just like you have to work overtime to shed those pounds from Thanksgiving dinner.

If you want to remain healthy, and you want your site to remain healthy in the eyes of the search engine bots, avoid stuffing inside the turkey—or a particular web page.