When writing content for the web it is important to avoid overuse of stop words. Stop words are words that are ignored by search engines because their use is too common across the web to be truly meaningful in search results.
Stop words include common words, as well as certain single digits and single letters. While they are used primarily in returning search results, including them in important page elements such as titles and headings not only dilutes the keywords you use in these but can also result in search engines treating your content very differently to what you intended. It is best to avoid them if possible.
Below is an incomplete, but nevertheless useful, list of common stop words that currently appear to be ignored by search engines. These words should be avoided in page titles and in headings, and used as little as possible within your page content.
- a
- about
- all
- am
- an
- and
- any
- are
- as
- at
- be
- by
- click
- com
- copy
- did
- do
- for
- from
- go
- get
- has
- he
- how
- I
- in
- is
- it
- links
- me
- most
- my
- net
- of
- on
- or
- other
- page
- post
- see
- that
- the
- this
- to
- too
- two
- us
- use
- was
- web
- what
- when
- where
- while
- who
- why
- will
- with
- www
It's also worth noting that search engines ignore some characters, such as exclamation marks, the arobase ("commercial at" or "at sign") and question marks.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or jump to the comment form to add your thoughts }
But we need those words to make sentences. Shouldn't we write primarily for readers and secondarily for search engines?
@Sheldon: Writing for readers requires clear, unambiguous sentences without unnecessary or redundant words. Writing concise, succinct paragraphs is even more important on the web because readers tend to skim pages instead of reading every word, as they might with a print document. Most web sites (including mine) overuse stop words. Blogs aggrevate this because we tend to write and post, rather than writing a draft, reviewing it and editing it for brevity.
Limiting stop words helps both search engines and readers as it forces the writer to focus in on the message.
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