The Google ‘Over-Optimisation Penalty’ has still so far to be confirmed by Google themselves, but that hasn’t stopped the SEO blogosphere from buzzing with speculation about what will be targeted, whose rankings will suffer and some people even reporting that it might be here already. Certainly there are examples out there of some larger sites dropping twenty or more places overnight.
Amid all the conjecture, there are a few recurring themes. Below, we’ve compiled some of the salient points and how to avoid the pitfalls of ‘over-optimisation’.
Pages Titles
The main things Google might look unfavourably on with page titles are; repeated keywords and repetitious use of synonyms that don’t add anything in the way of understanding.
Keep things simple and clear. Try to include keyword search terms that describe the page overall and the products it features.
Backlinks
Backlinks are a strong indicator to search engines of a site’s relative worth. This knowledge has lead to widespread exploitation, namely; comment spamming, blog networks and reciprocal linking.
Link-building can be a laborious process, there are no quick fixes but links from quality sites can help increase traffic and authority. Its importance should not be underestimated.
Footers
Link-heavy footers were once a neat method of fooling search engines without impacting too much on a site’s appearance. Placing large numbers of links at the bottom of a page was a way to tell Google that it was important and worth looking at.
Use anchor-text links in the body of the onpage text where they enhance the user experience of the site.
Internal Links
Exact-match anchor text repeatedly linking to the same pages on a site might have once helped spread a site’s authority but, when overused, this is little more than extra clutter.
Instead of focusing on sheer volume of internal links; try to include logical, useful links where they are appropriate. Also, change the anchor text to avoid using the same keyword phrases over and over again as repeated uses will not bring extra value.
Keyword Stuffing
Blocks of text written with the sole purpose of housing a few-dozen mentions of a particular keyword or keywords do not add to a site’s value.
Any information on-page should be there for humans, rather than search engines. As such, it should be useful, relevant and well written.
Bearing these things in mind will not only help your site to avoid being penalised by Google, it will also improve the experience for the user, which should always be the priority of SEO!
