The term "web spam" has been mentioned in many official blogs recently. Actually, the term seems to be mentioned every few months when someone complains about it, reawakens the topic.
In reality, "web spam" refers to a web page that is made up entirely of clusters of similar words that looks like gibberish.
Here's EXAMPLE 1 of web spam:
"We sell engagement ring the best selection of engagement rings is in our jewelry showcase you will find the best bridal engagement rings at our store women should look here for a variety of wedding engagement ring selections available nowhere else but our jewelry showcase in our engagement ring store where we have the best jewelry and diamond rings you could ever expect from an online jewelry store."
All of the search engines have implemented filtering to prevent you from ever seeing this type of web spam. Sadly, many SEO companies will charge people money to implement the above method as one of their optimization techniques.
While you may not see the previous type of web spam, you might see something like EXAMPLE 2:
"We have the best selection of engagement rings in Houston, Texas. Our bridal staff is on hand each and every day to help you try on any of the engagement rings in our jewelry showcase. We have a variety of wedding and engagement ring styles to steal the heart of any bride to be. If you are looking for the best engagement rings in Houston, TX we invite you to stop into our jewelry store or visit us online."
Although this second example has complete and correct sentence structures, this is still web spam. The last part of the last sentence is completely useless because they are already reading this on your website. Any casual reader will feel like they are talking to the proverbial "used car salesman" as they read that. Let's count up the phrases.
* Engagement rings: 4 times
* Houston: 2 times
* Jewelry: 2 times
* Best: 2 times
As a rule of thumb, you should limit each phrase to 2 occurrences on every page. The first time a phrase is mentioned, it is recorded by the search engines. The second time a phrase is mentioned it is considered interesting. But if you mention it three or more times on a page, you run the risk of being classified as spam and hurting your SEO efforts rather than helping.
When writing the copy for every page of your site you simply need to be natural, as if you are talking to someone in-person. Read what you write out loud if it will help.
Here's the CORRECT method of the above examples:
"Welcome to The Houston Jeweler website. We have a variety of engagement rings in our online product catalog which we invite you to browse through. For you guys, we can help if you have butterflies in your stomach and huge purchase fears. Feel free to call us, email us or stop in the store any time and ask for a private engagement ring consultation with one of our bridal staff. We can help you select the right ring style to steal the heart of any bride-to-be. For all you future brides out there, we also have a Bridal Registry and a large giftware section in our showcase in addition to our bridal jewelry. Looking for gifts for your Bride's Maids? We have jewelry for them, too. If we are fortunate enough to be the first jewelry store website you've visited, you should really start by reading our jewelry education information, and specifically about the 4C's of diamonds. If that diamond information is confusing, we'll be happy to explain it all again in-person during your private viewing while you look at ring settings with and without diamonds."
The above example is much longer than the first two, but it was important to demonstrate how you could write fully embellished, non-spammy web page copy. No phrases are repeated, and variations of the same or similar words are use throughout.
Writing copy for your website is more of an art than a science. Hopefully, this demonstration shed some light on the subject.
