“Textual Nausea” is an early SEO term used to describe the excessive density or frequency of a keyword or phrase in the text of a web page. This metric is calculated as the ratio of the number of times a keyword occurs to the total number of words in the content, and is essentially a statistical indicator of text saturation.
The concept originated in the period when search engine algorithms were relatively primitive and relied heavily on literal word counts to determine thematic relevance. A high “nausea” value was considered an indicator that the page was strongly focused on a specific topic. Subsequently, this practice evolved into a manipulative technique (Keyword Stuffing), in which keywords are embedded unnaturally in the text with the sole purpose of misleading the search engine.
Today, as algorithms have evolved to understand language and context semantically, “Textual Nausea” is losing its direct influence as a ranking factor. High values of this metric are seen as a signal of low quality and over-optimization, often leading to algorithmic penalties. Expert writing now focuses on thematic coverage and the natural use of synonyms and related concepts, rather than statistical density.