eBay Discovers Keyword Stuffing

eBay have discovered good ol’ fashioned keyword stuffing. Surely some mistake?

For my non-SEO geek readers, keyword stuffing is a spammy old-school SEO trick.

It fell out of favour with most SEOs soon after the Declaration of American Independence.

Google’s webmaster guidelines say…

“Keyword stuffing” refers to the practice of loading a webpage with keywords in an attempt to manipulate a site’s ranking in Google’s search results. Filling pages with keywords results in a negative user experience, and can harm your site’s ranking… typically, these will be lists or paragraphs of keywords, often randomly repeated.

I usually avoid SEOmoz-style outing. But this is too funny not to flag up.
Here’s a screenshot:

Now in case you struggle to read 300+ words of paragraph-less 8 point text, this reads…

eBay’s Music category is the best place to buy or sell music from top artists across all music genres: rock, pop, R&B, rap, hip-hop, reggae, blues, classical music, country music, easy listening, adult contemporary, new age, heavy metal, Christian rock, folk music or children’s music. Whatever your tastes, eBay has it available new or used in every format: CD, cassette, Box-set, LP, record, vinyl record, single EP or super audio CD. eBay even offers music as digital downloads, meaning you can buy music in digital / MP3 format. Looking for today’s most popular music? eBay has great prices for Dave Matthews Band, Bruce Springsteen’s Devils & Dust, Coldplay, Systems of a Down, American Idol, Green Day, Audioslave, Toby Keith, Il Divo, Jack Johnson, Beck, Rob Thomas, Kem, Nine Inch Nails, Ryan Adams, Kelly Clarkson, Gwen Stefani, 50 Cent, The Game, Mariah Carey and others. Looking for the all time top selling albums? eBay has them new and used at the great prices: The Eagles Greatest Hits 1971-1975 (The Eagles), Thriller (Michael Jackson), The Wall (Pink Floyd), Led Zeppelin IV (Led Zeppelin), Billy Joel Greatest Hits Volumes I & II (Billy Joel), Rumours (Fleetwood Mac), Back in Black (AC/DC), The Beatles (The Beatles), Come on Over (Shania Twain), Boston (Boston), The Bodyguard (Whitney Houston), Cracked Rear View Mirror (Hootie & the Blowfish), Elton John Greatest Hits (Elton John), Hotel California (The Eagles), The Beatles 1967-1970 (The Beatles), No Fences (Garth Brooks), Jagged Little Pill (Alanis Morissette), Born in the USA (Bruce Springsteen), Physical Graffiti (Led Zeppelin), Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd), Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack (Bee Gees), The Beatles 1962-1966 (The Beatles), Appetite for Destruction (Guns ‘N Roses), Garth Brooks Double Live (Garth Brooks), Supernatural (Santana), Backstreet Boys (Backstreet Boys), Ropin’ The Wind (Garth Brooks), Bat Out of Hell (Meat Loaf), and Purple Rain (Prince and the Revolution).

This should really help those all-important rankings on Altavista…

Take a look for yourself, just above the footer on eBay’s catagory pages.