c/freelance-seo-hub

Client told me my headings were 'keyword stuffed' and it stung

Had a long-time client review my draft last month. She flat out said my H2s read like a robot wrote them. 'You're not writing for Google, you're writing for my customers.' So I rewrote all the headings to be useful statements instead of keyword lists. Traffic actually went up 12% the next month. Anyone else had a client call them out on something basic like that?

2 comments

sagejackson•1d ago

Spent 2 years building backlinks wrong before a competitor pointed it out

I used to think more backlinks was always better, so I was buying bulk links from those Fiverr gigs for like $20 a pop. After 2 years of this, my site barely moved in the rankings. Then a competitor in the Houston landscaping scene casually mentioned over coffee that he only builds links from local business directories and trade publications. I checked my backlink profile and realized 90% of my links were from spammy sites that Google probably ignored or penalized. It took me another 6 months to clean it all up with disavows, which was a nightmare. Now I focus on getting links from the local chamber of commerce and supplier sites, and it's actually working. Has anyone else had to undo a bunch of bad links before they saw results?

2 comments

viola_garcia56•3d ago

Spent $150 on a keyword research tool and it gave me the same data as Google's free planner

That promised "AI-driven insights" were just repackaged suggestions I could have pulled from the free version in 10 minutes, so is anyone else just sticking with basic tools and saving the cash?

c/freelance-seo-hub

Client told me my headings were 'keyword stuffed' and it stung

Spent 2 years building backlinks wrong before a competitor pointed it out

Spent $150 on a keyword research tool and it gave me the same data as Google's free planner

Hit 200 backlinks on a client site without even trying this year

Had to pick between a $300 SEO audit tool or a $30 plugin bundle

Hit 100 backlinks in a week from one guest post and now I'm suspicious

Tried that AI content generator everyone was hyping - total disaster for my site

I stopped chasing every keyword tool's "high volume" suggestions last year and it actually worked

Just read a stat about bounce rate and time on page that blew my mind

Was dead set against using AI for SEO content until last week

Hit 50 backlinks from guest posts last month and it changed how I pitch clients

Just realized most SEO tools are totally wrong about my competitors' backlinks

Stumbled on a stat about 60% of local searches ending in a call and it changed how I pitch

Thought google penalties were a myth until I woke up to 95% traffic loss last Tuesday

Shoutout to the way I track keywords now (vs. last year's mess)

That SEO conference in Austin where I lost a $3,000 retainer over one dumb mistake

Was totally skeptical about automated SEO reports for clients, now I'm a believer

Appreciation post: Finally saw the difference between Google Search Console and Semrush for my own sites

My automated reporting tool broke mid-month and I had to rebuild 12 client dashboards by hand

Picked up a free SEO plugin at a WordCamp that cut my site load time by 40%

TIL I was keyword stuffing my meta descriptions this whole time

Stop using 'SEO content' that reads like a robot wrote it

Hit 800 pages indexed then lost 400 in one Google update

I tried automated outreach vs doing it by hand and the winner wasn't even close

Warning: That keyword research tool is guessing 60% of your volume numbers