What Are SEO Stop Words And How To Avoid Using Them

Writing for SEO can confuse a lot of people and seasoned writers alike.

We already understand the importance of keywords when it comes to online writing.

The best way to have your articles show up on the first few pages of the search engine, you need to choose relevant keywords.

as part of your keyword research, it is essential to know what SEO stop words are because they can dilute the potential of your keywords in search queries significantly.

Here is a list of common stop words to avoid.

A – And – Be – In – Me – On – Of

When using any of these stop words in your keywords, next to your keywords or part of a sentence using your keywords, you dilute your search results.

Even though many writers do not understand the meaning of this rule, we still have to adhere to it. You want your posts to come up on the first or second page of a Google search.

Using any of these stop words, would not give you that opportunity because a search engine filters out stop words.

When to use SEO stop words and when not to

You can use these stop words freely in natural language in the text or body of your article. Our writing would not make much sense without the use of these words, and thus it is allowed in your writing.

You just want to be careful not to use them close to your keywords. There are also some rules to be aware of when it comes to using SEO stop words. You do not want to use it in any of the following elements.

Anchor Texts

Header Texts

Links

Meta Titles

Meta Keywords

We cannot continue to write online without some basic knowledge of SEO. If we are writing for clients or trying to build up our individual profiles, it is important to be aware of these rules. If you can, you should use an SEO plugin.

All you have to think about are the facts that an online reader would be searching for. If the reader is looking for a case study writing service, let’s consider the following 2 options.

The best case study writing service in London

Best Case Study Writing Service London

Google will ignore all the SEO stop words, and if you have it as part of your keywords, you might miss the opportunity of being found online.

Even if your work is the best and your article has high-quality content, this could hinder your success.

Are the use of SEO stop words fatal to the website?

Even though we are advised to exclude stop words from our headlines and meta titles, this is not to say that it is going to mean the end of a website. You do not get penalised by Google, although you dilute your search engine ranking.

Many blogs and websites still use these stop words because of ignorance or simply not knowing the rules. Some of these websites even have great success while incorporating stop words.

Of course, they might already have high traffic numbers. It would not mean the end of a website if the quality of the content is great. With that being said, it is of course much easier to avoid using these stop words in the suggested areas.

How to avoid using SEO stop words

If you were writing for search engines, it would be pretty simple to avoid these stop words, but you are writing for human as well. You need to find a balance between using less of the stop words while making sense to the human eye.

One way of doing this is to write shorter sentences. Most people are not interested in reading blocks of text, but instead, just want to scan over information quickly and efficiently.

If you were to write your popular facts down in point form, you might find a balance between the two. Like I said, using these stop words does not mean total fatality of a website, so you have to decide how important this is to you or your client.

Professional case study writers would take this rule very seriously, but an article about living healthily might be searched for in different ways. It does become a hassle to overthink every sentence, and many bloggers have chosen to ignore this rule.

Keywords might read a bit strange without these stop words, but they are there for the search engines. The rest of your article is for your audience.

If you can remove the stop words from your main titles and keywords, you should have SEO success. The rule here is not to be overly concerned about the use of stop words, but instead about where you use these.

No keyword stuffing

Keyword stuffing is also a fundamental SEO rule that many writers are aware of but do not always adhere to.

You never want to overuse your keywords. If your keywords are not doing too well without these SEO stop words, using them less would be beneficial. An article also does not read very well with a ton of keywords thrown in.

Conclusion

It is possible to avoid SEO stop words to a degree, but it would be a shame if we start writing without these words. At the end of the day, you need to find that balance for your own writing.

As time goes on, this becomes second nature, and you will start becoming more aware of where you use these stop words. It is so important to respect the message you are trying to communicate and never let any of these rules hinder your message.

When we think about these rules too much, it becomes overwhelming and starts changing the way we decide to write. Stick to the basics and forget about search engines in your first draft because it would be the most authentic version.

After that, you can go and consider the bots and edit accordingly.