Text Spam Level and Its Impact on Relevance

Not so many years ago, you could boost your rankings and reach the top of the search results with text content consisting of almost 100% of a set of key phrases.

This worked especially effectively for commercial queries.

Such "creativity" looked roughly like a tongue-twister: "An unthought thought about the meaning of meaninglessness is unthinkable and meaningless."

It's clear that the usefulness of such a text to a human was exactly 0.

But the machines considered it relevant and pushed it up.

Just imagine such verbal garbage in the TOP-10!

In the end, the search giant Google decided to put things in order in search.

A series of various introduced filters and content-quality assessment criteria followed, taking into account users' behavioral factors.

Today, over-stuffing and manipulation with keywords are harshly punished with penalties: lowered positions, bans, removal from the results.

All of this is conceived for one single purpose – to make content as useful as possible for a real "live" person searching for something online.

So what is spamminess (over-stuffing) and how do you write a relevant text?

Read on bravely, it's all laid out clearly there!

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What Is Text Spamminess?

The formula for calculating text spamminess.

What do "nausea" (density) and density mean?

What percentage is considered the norm?

Nothing superfluous – only useful info.
Spamminess is the overuse of repeated words and word forms in relation to the total length of the text.

In the context of SEO, it's the repeated use of keywords integrated into an informational article or another type of text content.

There's a simple and clear formula for the calculation:

For example: in an article about SEO promotion, a frequently used keyword would be "optimization."

Let's assume its frequency of repetition is 25, and the total number of words in the text is 800.

We get the following result:

Is this good or bad?

Let's think.

It turns out that the text consists of a single key query by more than 3 percent.

And that means it will be mercilessly punished by Google's filters with all the consequences that entails.

But what % is then considered acceptable?

You can be guaranteed to avoid any penalties from search engines with a spamminess level below 2%.

In the range from 2 to 3%, a partial worsening of positions in the results is possible.

And a value of 3% and above – that's already sad!

Density and keyword "nausea"

Keyword density also plays an important role.

That is, the interval between keywords or phrases.

The more evenly the "keywords" are distributed throughout the text – the better.

Ideally, there should be at least 400-450 characters of main text between them.

Note!

Even if there are few keywords but they stand too close to each other – a search robot may take this for spam.

Keep your distance!

"Nausea" (keyword saturation) is a more extended analogue of spamminess.

It includes not only all the case forms of a keyword, but also interrelated words from a single query.

For example: the keyword "optimization."

In a query it may be associated with "SEO," "technical," "site," and others.

If the article describes tools for promoting a site through technical SEO optimization.

Keyword saturation can be classic and academic.

Classic saturation is determined by taking the square root of all the repetitions of the most used word in the text.

As a result, the value turns out to be absolute and does not depend on the length of the text, which is not entirely logical.

Academic saturation already depends directly on the length of the text, so it's more objective.

There's a rather convoluted formula for calculating it, but there's no point in memorizing it – you can always use online services for checking.

This article explains in detail how to lower the keyword saturation of a text.

The Spamminess Norm

When copywriters are commissioned to write texts, various tools are used to check the results of their work.

Among the popular ones is the "SEO analysis" service provided by the large copywriting marketplace Text.ru.

They have their own unique hidden methodology for calculating the spamminess metric, but at the same time a very convenient and clear interpretation of results with value ranges.

A clear table for understanding the results after checking a text:

We've figured this out…

We'll return in more detail to which tools exist for online spamminess analysis and how to use them in another chapter.

Well, for now, a little primer on filters.

It'll be interesting!

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Text Filters of Search Engines

Text-content filters of search engines.

Text filters of the Google search engine.

Is it still possible to manipulate the SERP?

Or is it time to create content for people…

Although search engines have officially denied a deliberate fight against optimization more than once, it is nevertheless actively waged.

They simply distinguish between conditionally "white" and "gray" text optimization of sites.

And it's precisely the latter that all the introduced filters are aimed at.

The "Over-Stuffing" Filter

In the SEO community it's also called "-20."

By its nature, it's a query-dependent filter.

Specifically, over-stuffing affects one (less often several) promoted query (key phrase), which can lead to its drop by 25 positions on average.

To get rid of it, a light correction of the promoted phrase is most often enough.

For example, from "Promotion of English-language sites" to "Promotion of an English-language site" or "Of sites English-language promotion."

The "Over-Optimization" Filter

This filter is already document-dependent, since it acts on the entire document (text) as a whole.

When over-optimization penalties are imposed, the whole group of search queries sinks at once.

There's a substantial loss of incoming traffic and a drop in positions by 10-15 points on average, which 100% guarantees being knocked out of the TOP-10.

To get rid of this affliction, simple query modifications won't help.

The easiest thing is to reformat or do a full rewrite, reducing the length of the text by ⅕.

The "Keyword-Spam Occurrences" Filter

It's both query-dependent and document-dependent at the same time.

As a result of its penalties, the promoted text essentially disappears from the visibility zone, dropping thousands of positions down.

And along with it, it drags the entire site to the bottom, which can shift to the 100+ position in the results.

To get rid of the filter, it may help to reduce the length of the text by a third, professionally correct it by fixing mistakes, and reduce the number of clean keyword occurrences and their density.

Or else completely rewrite the material.

The "Panda" Filter

It traces its origins back to February 2011.

It's an automatic ranking algorithm based on assessing the quality of content on a site.

Panda's main task is to improve the quality of search results for a user looking for information.

For this, a kind of site-relevance rating is compiled.

The greater the usefulness of a resource – the higher the position on the results page.

And if spam, plagiarism, or illiteracy is detected, then welcome to the bottom!

In addition, Panda checks the quality of the backlink profile and takes into account the behavioral factor: from the number of clicks to the time spent on the page.

Accordingly, to get out from under the filter you need to: make texts unique, increase informativeness, remove irrelevant content, and make the site structure as simple and convenient as possible.

The "Hummingbird" Filter

It started working in the fall of 2013.

And its purpose is to clearly understand the logic of the queries a user types into search.

That's why it was dubbed the "understanding" algorithm.

It might seem that, of all the filters, it's the most harmless.

After all, for the most part it only affects a site's traffic, redirecting the flows to more relevant resources.

But don't you need a lot of traffic?

When it comes to Hummingbird, the task here is rather not to avoid its attention.

On the contrary, it makes sense to appease the little but very clever bird by creating digestible content.

For this you need to give direct answers to queries, fully cover the topic, use specifics, and actively apply geo-data.

If we sum up all the search-engine filters, several points become obvious:

• in 2026, writing texts for machines is not just useless but also harmful;
• abusing "keywords" leads not to the top but to the bottom, with penalties around your neck;
• competent, unique, informative, and on-topic content guarantees high positions;
• attention triggers (illustrations, tables, charts) improve the behavioral factor
• algorithms and filters can't be directly fooled, but on the other hand they ensure healthy "white-hat" competition. The best content – positions in the TOP!

Recommended reading:

1. Promoting a Website Built on a Website Builder
2. 15 Ways to Monetize a Website and the Secrets of Preparing for It

Online Services for Checking Over-Stuffing

Free resources for evaluating texts.

How to use them, what to pay attention to.

Instructions and analysis of the results obtained.

And what a relevant text even is…

There are more than a dozen different tools for checking the quality of texts.

But what's the point of chasing quantity if the generally recognized leaders were determined long ago?

Today there are actually two of them: TEXT.RU and ADVEGO.COM

But so be it, I'll recommend one more solid free service from me as a bonus for you, my reader.

TEXT.RU

We're immediately greeted by the home page with convenient, clear navigation.

We pay attention to the "SEO analysis" menu – that's where we're headed!

After which we take the text and "run" it through the service's algorithms to find out the verdict.

As an example, I'll use a fragment of the introduction from this article before publication.

Let's see how it's rated for spamminess and more.

An excellent result, one I won't have to blush over.

No spam at all.

It's immediately clear that this article is being written exclusively for people, that is, for you.

I hope it'll even manage to reach the top)

As we can see, the words that fall under the concept of spammy are highlighted in purple.

And separately listed in the table below.

If necessary, the text can easily be edited.

But in our case everything is super, we'll leave it!

ADVEGO.COM

Another free service.

The menu is also user-friendly and intuitive.

Again we select "SEO analysis of text."

We paste in our text and run the check.

Here it happens almost instantly.

And what did we get in the end?

Note!

Advego doesn't have a criterion such as "spamminess."

Instead, the important metric is classic and academic keyword saturation.

And again everything is very decent.

The saturation fits within the norm of 5-15%, and is in fact at the very minimum.

Similarly, there's a breakdown of frequency by individual words.

By the way, you definitely still have a question from the previous table: "Why so much fluff, a whole 59.4%, when Text.ru showed only 17%?"

Well done, you don't lose your vigilance!

The answer is simple: a different calculation system.

Advego's algorithm simply divides the number of words it considers insignificant by the total length of the text.

That's why it sets the corresponding norm for "fluff" – 55-75%.

And so here too my text is in perfect order.

And here's the promised bonus!

ISTIO.COM

A free service and a champion of simplicity.

A start page, a field for text, and an "Analyze" button.

Everything at once!

The results are quite informative.

There's the number of repetitions of each word, highlighting of keywords in the text.

Again, its own algorithm for calculating fluffiness with highlighting of insignificant words that can be cleaned up or replaced.

And there's also its own "gimmick."

It's called the "Text Map."

It visually shows word repetitions, highlighting and enlarging the most frequent ones (in fact, the keywords).

This makes it easy to visually assess the distance between them, that is, the density.

A very useful thing, take note of it.

No registration or authorization!

As we can see, even the free functionality of online resources is more than enough to identify over-stuffing problems and solve them.

And how to solve them – read in the next chapter…

Optimizing Over-Stuffed Texts

How to fight filter penalties.

5 ways to reduce spamminess.

Correcting and humanizing the text.

The final result after all the effort.

Penalties are an incentive to bring a site / article / document / text into a normal state, in accordance with the requirements of search engines.

You're punished by being offered to play by the rules.

You won't be able to rewrite those rules to suit yourself.

But adapting to them is realistic and not all that difficult.

As we remember, you can sometimes get out from under "Over-Stuffing" by replacing the endings in the promoted phrase or rearranging the words.

But if you fell under several filters at once or can't determine which one exactly, then there are several universal ways to reduce spamminess.

Let's break them down…

Synonyms, pronouns, and imagination

You can't do without a substantial vocabulary.

Although there are many sites for selecting synonyms or words close in meaning.

We simply take a word that appears 20 times in the text and replace it with, say, 4 similar ones 5 times each.

Of course, there are drawbacks too.

It's easy to replace "work" with "labor, employment, craft."

But when the topic is about the "hadron collider," how do you find synonyms for it?

Maybe you know?

Less-more

Cutting content isn't a panacea, but it often gives a positive result.

Removing some of the fluff and the excess spam along with it is always useful.

The main thing is to keep the most important essence, for the sake of which the content was created.

The reverse option is to pour in even more fluff, increasing the overall length of the text, thereby artificially lowering the spamminess.

It's just that who will read these endless walls of text where everything useful is dissolved in empty chatter.

Spreading out-separating

The density of keyword placement is the main enemy of any text.

Copywriters often sin by integrating keywords wherever they can, without caring about the distance between occurrences.

Well, that's how the thought fell into place and there they stay, all in one paragraph.

It wouldn't hurt to repeat the golden rule: the distance between "keywords" should be at least 400 characters!

And ideally, no more than 2 occurrences per 1000.

Sometimes observing this norm is enough to avoid penalties.

Deep rewrite / correction

Many copywriters don't like to rewrite their own texts, let alone other people's.

Often, reformulating an already-written sentence takes many times more time and mental effort than writing a new one.

In the case of over-stuffing, the task is complicated by the fact that after correction, individual words or phrases must disappear from the text while the meaning is preserved.

So if your copywriter is an idealist, then this method is very good indeed.

Deleted-rewrote

A radical solution, when nothing else helps anymore.

You can start with completely deleting an individual paragraph and all the way up to the entire text.

If the material was written by a copywriter from a marketplace, it makes sense to look for another, more competent one.

If you're the author yourself – then it'll be useful practice for honing your skills.

You can always pull up your level of knowledge on the topic to fill the article with such content that even a search robot will exclaim "Bravo" in binary code.

Next, it wouldn't hurt to run the texts through a check for style and readability, because, after all, we write for people.

We'll be helped by – Glavred and Turgenev.

The latter has recently become paid, but this didn't affect the style check.

In the end, if there too you get high marks, then I can congratulate you – you've finally brought your text practically to perfection.

It has become relevant.

Google's search algorithms are simply obliged to rank it so that as many users as possible read it.

If you're reading these lines, then I've coped with my task too.

Conclusions

You know what I'll tell you…

In fact, there's no longer any problem with spamminess.

Unexpected, isn't it?

But that's how it is.

Years have passed since the introduction and improvement of all the known and unknown filtering algorithms.

And the creators of text content have simply learned to play by the rules.

Yes, copywriters have started writing humane, informative texts, and keyword saturation has become natural, in the context of the topic being covered.

No one deliberately inserts phrases along the lines of "order a technical site audit cheaply."

Although maybe some dinosaurs remain, but what do we care about them if they'll never even reach the TOP-100.

So this article is rather a historical excursion and a needless reminder of how not to write.

Although they say for good reason that: repetition is the mother of learning!