How would you feel if you were looking for ‘pizza shops in Dallas’ and reached a site with a tutorial to make a strange named mock-tail with the keyword ‘pizza shops in dallas’ thrown here and there? Of course you won’t react in a positive way as you didn’t get what you want and you’ll have to start the search over again from the beginning; unless, well if you were looking for a mock-tail to go with your Pizza!
Google also (claims to) understands it and is constantly trying to provide users with good results which the users are actually interested in and not some over optimized irrelevant site. It however has to rely on a pre-written algorithm to do the search for you and bring back the most relevant results with greater emphasis to results which may be best suited for you. However even though the same was never disclosed by Google, people did manage to get an idea of the algorithm and tried to manipulate their websites (Website optimization) accordingly so that they will get that #1 spot when someone searches the keyword.
Google however has recently announced that it will introduce an algorithm which may hit these ‘over-optimized’ websites and the same has been a matter of great debate ever since. In the following article you can find information on what practices to follow to steer clear of the next algorithm change.
Content And Keyword Density:
- Over optimization of content is a strict no-no and can be the main reason if your site ever slipped in the Google pages.
- You must always try to write for the reader first- this is what Google and every other search engine likes.
- Write good informative posts and make it sound as if it is a normal conversation and not an optimized article with the keyword inserted twice in every line.
- You must still use the relevant keyword in all the heading tags, link and description. Just don’t over use the keyword which may seem unnatural.
Link Building
Link building is a good way to increase your SERPs. If you get good links from quality websites, it translates into- the website is good and trustworthy as it is trusted by another good website. More such links will mean better reputation for your site. However getting too many links more than what one would normally expect can get you in trouble.
- Do not indulge in buying or selling links.
- Don’t use automated software to get you thousands of links in no time and steer clear of links to or from adult or scam websites.
- Let the links come through natural ways and genuine interest in your posts.
- Getting many links in quick time because of genuine reasons like viral posts is not harmful at all.
Advertisements
Advertisements are the main revenue generation source for blogs and websites. It is hence expected that you will try to add as many advertisements in the page. Too many advertisements however can cramp your post and visitors may not like to see content cramped between so many advertisements.
- Keep in check the number of advertisements in the page and make sure there are not many advertisements above the fold (visible area of your website before scrolling).
Do Follow And No Follow
There is no problem in using too many ‘no follow’ links in your website and Google doesn’t label it as over-optimization. It is up to you which sites you would like to link and what attribute you would like to use.
In short you must instead concentrate on making your site interesting and useful for the users rather than stuffing keywords or exchanging way too many links.
27 Comments
G is continually trying to provide users with great results which the users are in fact interested in and not really some over optimized unimportant site. ” You are directly on target–Matt Cutts has even said just as much. Search engines, especially Big G, want to position sites with original, quality content instead of sites optimized.
Unlike Google’s Panda algorithm which focused on content, this new algo, Penguin focuses on natural linking for both inbound and outbound links.
Before Penguin, it seemed that Google did not penalise in bound links, which is why so many sites participated in link farms and duplicated articles. This is now a new world order and this is my list of 5 top action points to get in the groove of good habits.
1. Dump the outbound/Resources/Shared links pages. – My outbound links are now naturally placed within the body of a relevant page. If the link is not relevant to my niche, it won’t be on my site.
2. Stop applications to directories for inbound links – it’s unnatural to have hundreds and thousands. Just a few good quality directories will do.
3. Naturally, forget any link farms or purchasing links.
4. For external links, don’t have the anchor text the same as the keyword. That’s unnatural behaviour
5. I’m progressively tidying up the internal links for navigation, so that it is clean, sleek and still useful to the visitor without looking like optimization. I’m using breadcrumbs for sleek navigation.
I hope this list will help you too.
Thanks for clearing that up. With so many changes going on lately, its quite hard to know what to do and what not to do to optimize your website.
This is an excellent article and very relevant given Google’s latest changes in algorithm, Penguin.
Given Penguin wants links occurring naturally, does this mean the end of directories?
My own site on easy recipes seems to have increased in traffic since Penguin but nonetheless, I’d like to conduct my work on-line in the most efficient and optimized manner without attracting Google’s penalties.
Thanks for the tips, this is very useful for me. Btw if this way is still valid after google release google penguin from its cage.
Google did not provide specifics about how the algorithm will differentiate useful content from Web spam, saying that doing so would “give people a way to game our search results and worsen the experience for users.”
“(Google) is constantly trying to provide users with good results which the users are actually interested in and not some over optimized irrelevant site.” You are right on target–Matt Cutts has even said as much. Search engines, especially Big G, want to rank sites with original, quality content rather than sites optimized to the nines.
I think titles will be a big factor. If your page titles are spammy e.g. Pet store – pet store supplies – pet store Melbourne – Pupps. Google can see you are hitting particular keywords. Instead write a title like “Pupps pet store and supplies in Melboune”. Use the brand and make sense for the user.
Ever since I changed wording around on my blog posts, my bounce rate has gone down. people are spending more time on the site. Good news for me! Im also becoming a better writer. SEO can be grueling, but with a little patience, im getting better. Thanks =)
Not only does writing for the reader first now help to boost your standing in the search engine, but it also dramatically increases the odds of a reader coming back. With all the talk about over optimised text when it comes to SEO, I think it is often forgotten that over optimised text also ‘sucks’, and usually if I find myself reading it then I’ll write the website off and won’t visit again.
Yes over optimization of a sites can be bad for websites. because google will penalized your site,if you do a black hat seo tricks in a seo.
Thank you for bringing out the importance of maintaining a balance with keyword optimization Divya. It is easy to get carried away with the obsession of being on the first page of Google. It’s hard when you get caught in one of these issues as a lot of hard work and money is lost. Better be safe than sorry I guess.
Sometimes it just looks ridiculous when some sites are making keywords stuffing and the content looks like a joke. I think we should optimize our sites but in more organic way.
Great reminder! Have read this over-optimization articles getting viral over the net. Whats the main point is getting natural and quality over quantity links while being social and engaging to your visitors.
very informative one!!!!!!!!
I am trying not to optimize my sites. But I know optimization is essential to rank high. I am thinking about the Google algorithm. Without knowing it well, how can we decide? It is promoting sites without link building and such practices.
The post is very informative. It is a pleasure reading it. I have also bookmarked you for checking out new posts.
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White hat always work great it may take time but gives you what result you want and that is always genuine and if you are planning for long run then white hat seo is always recommend.
Google is trying hard to stop people manipulation the search results..natural link building and putting emphasis on social activity is part of that…It is good for small business to get their fare share in the search results…
I agree that Google should stop the blackhat seo websites and the once that use it, but and that’s big but they also hammers good websites that hasn’t done anything wrong.
And social medias should be a large part of the link building and relations to the users, but it’s only one part of it.
I agree with all that’s listed here. And the tips were amazing too. Wouldn’t it be nice if SEO people become more responsible and knowledgeable in optimizing a certain page or website. Sometimes it’s really a hassle when you search for something, used the right keywords and were given bad results. Thanks for pointing this out! Cheers!
Vivienne
The main purpose of Google here is to avoid spamming and giving fair chance to small business to promote their sites as well. Otherwise big companies can easily spend millions of dollars for their SEO campaigns but small business can’t afford it, and that’s where giant businesses were getting full advantage. But now onwards over-optimization can cause you loss in ranking so competition would be fairer for everyone.
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Thank you for sharing this information. This is a big help for me.
I think it is a really good news because there had been a lot of blogs and sites just for SEO with a trashy content, that couldn’t give any information for the visitor. Google’s goal is to serve the surfer community, and this new algorithm helps them to prevent to get lost.
Regarding natural link building have never been more true, you can all over the web read about BMR getting shut down and the users are feeling the effect as their websites goes down the ladder on search results.
You can also use keywords in the images names, as long as they are relevant just like it’s done with the seo image in this post.