SEO: Over-Optimization of Your Website
March 9, 2010 by Pablo Palatnik
We’ve heard this before, “don’t over-optimize your website.” YES, there is such as thing for those who are starting that you can actually be penalized by the engines for over-optimization. Why? Because over optimizing your website is telling the engine you are spamming to get top results.
Eric Enge talks about this today in his post on SearchEngineWatch. He list the following as methods of over optimization:
1) Pages that have identical page titles and H1 headings.
2) Too many non-contextual internal links on your site.
3) Having pages with great visual experiences above the fold, and not finding text until well below the fold.
So, how do you know if you’re over-optimizing your website? Well, there isn’t a way to be 100% sure but as the Google model goes, it just has to be natural. If you have 100 keywords in your meta-tag, that will not be looked good upon to the bot.
Make your on-site optimization as natural and clear as possible. Don’t cloak and fill it with a bunch of crap that will eventually lead nowhere. Good optimization will be the result of:
1) Good clean on-site optimization.
2) Good original content
3) Good linking structure
4) Solid inbound links
You also may be interested in reading Aaron Walls take at: Filters vs Penalties & Optimization vs Over-Optimization
