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Five websites with varying keyword densities were designed and submitted to Google, Yahoo! and Bing. Two phases of the experiment were done and the response of the search engines was recorded.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Findings<\/jats:title><jats:p>Scholars have indicated different views in respect of spamdexing, characterised by different keyword density measurements in the body text of a webpage. During both phases, almost all the test webpages, including the one with a 97.3 per cent keyword density, were indexed.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Research limitations\/implications<\/jats:title><jats:p>Only the three biggest search engines were considered, and monitoring was done for a set time only. The claims that high keyword densities will lead to blacklisting have been refuted.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Originality\/value<\/jats:title><jats:p>Websites should be designed with high quality, well\u2010written content. Even though keyword stuffing is unlikely to lead to search engine penalties, it could deter human visitors and reduce website value.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/oir-11-2011-0193","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2013,5,28]],"date-time":"2013-05-28T12:59:47Z","timestamp":1369745987000},"page":"268-286","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":13,"title":["Keyword stuffing and the big three search engines"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"37","author":[{"given":"Herbert","family":"Zuze","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Melius","family":"Weideman","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"140","reference":[{"key":"key2022021220470603200_b1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Abernethy, J., Chapelle, O. and Castillo, C. 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