Keyword Stuffing - Where Do You Draw the Line?

[Stew222]

I have a tax software website for which there a multiple pages that compete using different keywords.  However, all pages but my home page have recently fallen out of the rankings completely and I really just don't know why.

For instance, my page - http://www.1099pro.com/prod1099proEnt.asp - has the title keywords "1099 Efile Software | 1099 Software | 1099 Electronic Filing".  When I run a Moz report on the keyword "1099 E-File Software" I get an "A" rating and it finds a total of 8 instances of the keyword.  However, when I run a Moz report on the keyword "1099 Software" it finds a total of 26 instances of the keyword - still with an "A" rating.

When I search the actual text/html there are only 6 instances of the keyword "1099 software" which leads me to believe that Moz/Google/Search Engines are ignoring the middle term in words like "1099 printing software" or "1099 e-filing software" and only picking up "1099 software".  Is this supposed to be happening?  Does anyone know why or how many terms can be ignored in that fashion?

I used to have multiple landing pages in the top 3 results and now all of my other landing pages have completely fallen from the rankings even though I am not keyword stuffing and am providing unique & relevant content.  If anyone has an idea as to why my rankings have dropped so drastically I would really appreciate it (I take no part in black-hat link building so that isn't the reason).

[NateStewart]

I would have to second Gary Lee on this one. Chris as great info as well but like Chris is saying you probably need to do some rewriting.

[gazzerman1]

I noticed a while ago that Google was hitting sites that pipe keywords, I would change that page for instance to

"1099 E-File Software &  Electronic Filing"

You are not repeating words that way.

When I type your url into google, it changes the title anyway to "1099 Pro Enterprise - 1099 Pro, Inc." this is a sure sign that Google does not like your titles.

Try it on a few pages. Also your meta descriptions are very keyword stuffed and make sure any keywords used are also in text on that page.

[Chris.Menke]

Michael,

No  doubt, those are fairly competitive terms and each keyword in the title you mentioned probably should have its own page.  Using any word more than once in the title today is overkill--if you feel like you need to use it twice, you should be thinking about another page--but if you're thinking about another page, you need to consider whether you've got the resources to get it to rank and whether or not you might actually be cannibalizing traffic from the other page.  Titles need to be tight, complete, concise thoughts or concepts and the content of the page needs to on-point with the title.

Be sure to read through this How To Do Keyword Research - The Beginners Guide to SEO - Moz and the rest of the guide:The SEO Guide From Moz