I know, I know, it really sucks! All that effort you put into optimizing your site for search engines might actually come back to bite you in the butt. At SWSW 2012 (South by Southwest conference), Matt Cutts, and several others spoke about search engine optimization in their panel “Dear Google & Bing: Help Me Rank Better!”
I have been talking about not over-optimizing for some time. So, perhaps I need to first address how people do over-optimize on SEO.
- Heavy Keyword density in articles. You may want to keep your keyword density under 1.4%, which is normally 3 or 4 times within a 400 to 500 word article.
- Too many link exchanges, especially with links not relevant to their site’s content. Blogrolls are fine, but are they all going out to sites that have no relevancy to your site? It is important to make sure that you create a specific relevant list for your sitewide blog roll, and maybe a separate page with links to other sites. Giving all your friends some link juice might not be a great idea.
- Unintelligible heavy keyword density throughout site. The biggest thing I see is writing specifically for the search engine, especially for local optimization. For example, “your keyword, your city” is used constantly throughout each article. Perhaps try “Your keyword in your city.” This makes far more sense grammatically. Write for humans!
- Too many links above the fold that have no strong conversion (weak content). If you are linking to pages that may not have content that you are trying to rank for or that your visitors have no interest in visiting, it might be a good idea to pull the link from the top.
- Too many ads, even if they are relevant to their site above the fold (this includes text links.)
- Too many scripts. Sometimes those extra SEO scripts in those plugins might be slowing your site down. Better yet, maybe you have quite a few plugins installed to your site that are injecting a lot of code to execute and slow your site down. Keep it simple.
- A slow site. It might be your host. It might be a website with heavy graphics. It might be too many plugins loading to make your site work. Site speed is important to a lot of people. 4 seconds or faster is a good rule of thumbs when aiming to have a faster site.
The search engines ARE gearing more toward social search engines where people who are visiting your site, liking, sharing, and recommending your site will rank you better than that site that is over-optimized and not socially connected. While for some, this might suck, it really levels the playing field with people honestly ranking locally or globally and actually engaging with others.
Oh, and as the panel at SXSW 2012 covered- you are NOT guaranteed top ranking just because you optimized. There are many SEO companies that guarantee top ranking and they should not be, especially if your site is usually a very popular and competitive niche.
It is okay to write with keyword density in mind and some optimizing. However, it is better to be natural, keep it simple, and of course, share and engage with your readers.
What do you do when you optimize your site for SEO?
SEO SUCKS, there are lots of things to do. one page seo, link bulding etc . now a days i hate these changes. 🙁
These changes are actually pretty fair considering the fact that there are local places trying to optimize in their area that other sites are over-optimizing and sticking in keywords because they reach more globally. Why would I go to a bakery store in California if I live in Florida? The bakery would be much fresher in Florida and much closer where I do not have to ship. But if that bakery in California is trying to ship global and optimizes to include Florida… and ranks better in the old system, because people have gone their, reviewed on Yelp or other sites, that local store will now have social authority.
But remember i have seen such Over-Optimized website which still rank high
Hi Nile,
Over SEO is really very bad for any site. As we know that recently Google announced that they are going to penalize over SEO websites. Your post is very informative Nile.
Thank you very much.
I can relate to this, recently, a friend of mine was mailed by google about his site being over optimized. He panicked for a while thinking that his beloved site will be gone 😀
Hi Niles, I think that social media, especially google+ is now going to play a part in gaining a good position on search engines. And, I wonder if it’s going to become more important than getting a lot of high quality backlinks to your site?
Will be interesting to see what happens this year.
Regards from Julieanne
Thanks for sharing this! Going to try to keep overusing keywords and analyze the percentage of overuse more next time I publish!
Hi Ryan! The point of the article was to advise against over-optimizing, and this is something that comes from Bing, Google and other search engine leaders.
Good information. I have seen some horrible sites that were obviously written only with search engines in mind. Writing with people in mind is the best way. There isn’t much point in getting ranked well in search engines if your site is a turn off to visitors.
Hi Nile, you are right, over optimized site could have ranked well but with latest updates Google is trying to get rid of those mistakes and trying to give more emphasis on contents for humans…
this so great and I like it.
thanks that you sheared this.
Yes I hear that an over-optimised site will not guarantee high ranks on Google. What really matters is the content eg. How many people shared it, do people leave after 10 seconds or read the full thing. Also links are very important. If you have links coming in from high ranked and trusted sites, then your site is sure to rank higher too.
How did you come up with that 1,4% number for keyword density?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m using the same formula: repeating the exact keyword 3-4 times in an article plus some variations…just wondering. On a different article, forgot the address, someone wrote about the keyword density should be below 5-10%, which is waaaay to high in my opinion…
I use to do professional article rewriting and the company had a strict rule on keyword density so clients would not have over-optimized articles.
I love love love these news! Yes for me it has always been about writing more naturally and expressing my view and inspirations. Of course O have fallow the trends and tried to do SEO with the best of my knowledge but truthfully, I hate it…I know hate is a strong word so I’ll say “highly dislike” doing the keyword thing. What I do right now is write about subjects that are close to my heart. I syndicate and visit my fellow bloggers and use my blog to inspire, entertain, educate and attract like minded people… I pay little attention to my keyword density but I know it is still important that I try. Love your blog girl! ~ Nathalie
Really useful.
Thanks for sharing this. I am starting optimizing my site and i do not want to make too many errors!
I like the idea of keeping the keyword density low, but ive always felt that 3-5% works out well, but if using wordpress with SEO plugins that allow you to add meta keywords for each post, only use 2-3 of the keywords you used in the article for the seperate meta data.
Just my opinion.
Josh.
Thanks for this article, it’s very informative! I used to outsource to my new micro niche sites, and I figured it was actually better to do it myself since I really needed to learn to. I use SEOPressor to measure my articles keyword density and would typically aim for 2%. I’ll have to try lowering that percentage and work on some other area to improve my sites.
It puts me in mind of something that Shaun Anderson from Hobo Web said a while ago, which is that when asked to promote a client’s site he would devote zero time to SEO and all his effort into getting backlinks.
Hey Niles
I always follow a simple rule for on page SEO, keep it simple
Great advice, thanks
It is a bummer when you are trying to write quality content and find yourself outranked by some rubbish site that has a 14% density rate for the keywords you’re targeting. Just keep plugging away and eventually G and the others will get it all squared away. Right?
I had read this the other day and lamented it. I try not to overstuff keywords into my posts, but I know I probably have a too high of a density for them.
Is getting backlinks going to be looked down upon too by Google? As for the niche of one of my sites (Pizza), there aren’t many blogs of any quality to get related backlinks from. So I hope I won’t be too penalized by getting backlinks from sites like yours and others that teach about blogging. I’m trying to work on commenting more on pizza related sites, but there just isn’t that many.
Thanks for the info.
A lot of people these days try and trick the search engines and write for the robot not the human. Google knows what it it doing and there IS NO CHEATING GOOGLE!! Why would you want to in the first place when Google is your friend not enemy. Yes these new changes have made it harder to rank but not really. Let me explain…
Google just go rid of a bunch of CRAP sites that were either associated with a link building farm,content not related to your niche, and people using to much spun articles thinking it was ok. Those people got slapped and I can tell you nothing happen to my website. I still hold a PR2 and it is because I have unique content. Let me tell you guys Content is King especially in 2012 with all the changes happening in Search Engines Period. Their robots are getting smarter and thinking like a human. And for those of you not using Google+1 and building your circles you are going to miss out on a new wave for Google that will explode eventually. This is how Google gathers all its social media intelligence through these circles so start yours now and read up on it. This will be the next huge wave and you can get in early now if you act fast and don’t put it on the side burner. Hope some of this helped Thanks.
I really hope that this update won’t affect the honest webmasters , as the spammers will always find new ways to trick the search engines. I will try to follow your tips and keep it simple, although you can never know what over-optimization really means. Today it is 1.4% tomorrow it might be 1%. The only way to build a durable brand is to post quality content; at least that’s my philosophy.
Nice post!! Recently Matt Cutts of Google has confirmed that Google has Planned “SEO Over-Optimization Penalty”. So its better to be on safer side. Thanks for the post
thank you for sharing this great information with us i am sure it will help a lot of people including me.
Well, I guess finally! I’ve been working like crazy last year, creating (what I think is) great content, and ultimately, I always see sites that have poor content and hideously written (keywords and keywords) ranked better than us. Hopefully, this will take them “lower”.
Great useful post, I was never one for doing a huge amount of SEO on-page, just the basics. I do like other techniques like link building for example and spreading my posts but all in all people do over do it.
I do a lot of On-Page SEO, what’s the point in link building to pages not optimized?
I Completely agree about having a slow site is a killer! it’s annoying because most people forget that their SEO efforts mean more traffic, which in turn means slower speeds.
Great point on the blogroll and outbound links. Many people fail to realize that every link going out on each page takes a bit of their site’s link juice with it.
Hi Nile,
I never over optimize seo on my blog and its good that you aware lots of newbies about the drop-x of over optimizing seo on their blog.
I think that this is great news too! I really hate reading something that is not written for humans. Grammar is important. Otherwise the post just doesn’t flow properly. Thanks for the update.
Yes thank you for addressing this issue! SEO is something people over do quite a bit and it either works negatively for them or they lose the point of their website. I have read some pages that keyword me to death, and now that I understand what they are doing, it is frustrating. They don’t want to help me they just want to be perfectly optimized. I am glad things are moving more towards social connection because I think that matters more than someone that knows their keywords. I think that a site should be judged by a jury of peers.
SEO is really important but bloggers should write first for human and not for SEO. It may be difficult but it is just right.
As a SEO consultant i see alot of sites having alot of keyword density in articles or blog posts. This is what makes sites effected with Google Panda.
People should follow the basics listed above to try to have there site SEO optimized at a acceptable point and not beyond the SEO boundaries.
Optimizing is a great way to have a productive changes in a stuff but I am totally agree with this idea that over optimizing will bring also an unexpected negative appearance on it…
I am totally agree that a simple creation is more attractive than choosing/ optimizing over and over…
Optimizing is the best way to have have a new productive results in a stuff, but over is not really good from it… Just like drinking a cup of coffee with 1/4 of sugar…
Great post Nile and thank you for sharing this. I am, however, surprised that some of these so called over-optimised websites are still being looked upon favourably by Google. That is just my observation.
I see so many sites written for one reason only – SEO. Google wants it to look natural and so often sites will focus solely on seo and forget about the content. Content is key in my opinion. Thanks for sharing.
We have to many blog writing about SEO. Some of them don’t give a good advice, they just want to put their post at the top in Google SERP. Many bloggers also follow what they said and in the end, readers need to read a content written for SEO, not for the readers.
I saw my fault. Too many links and ads that are not relevant to my website. Thanks for info. great idea.
These are very useful tips, thanks allot for writing this article for us..
Regards
Hi,
That is sooo true, I hate going to a blog post to find it’s stuffed with the same keyword. To be honest I hate reading a blog post where you can blatantly work out the keyword, as then it’s not natural and not as easy to read…
Thanks
Joe Elliott
I believe that sometimes some blog are just too much SEO’d that it loses the value of the site. SEO is so much better when it comes naturally from real readers, real reviews and real people.
I guess the best strategy, overall, is to write the best content you can. There may sub-strategies along the way, but we cannot be married to them. Because they can swiftly change, as Google is increasingly showing us. Thanks for the tips!
Google has caught onto sites over optimizing and is now going to ban sites from over optimizing your site, this giving other blogs a chance to be recognized for there factual content and not just because of all the SEO used for people to stumble apon them. Thank you for your post.
That is true, when you give too much SEO optimization to your site, it becomes slow and hardly opened, which is getting the users out of it. Thank you for the tips they are very useful!
I can relate to your post. I was using SEOPressor plugin for WordPress previously. In using that, I find that I could not blog/write freely as there is that conscious action to ensure that I am meeting the On page factors and guidelines – density, font attributes, etc. The output is an article that is SEO optimized but does not read naturally.
Since then I have put priority to write for the reader first – then supplement with SEO factors where possible.
Thanks for the article. It is very helpful. It is quite difficult accomplishing decent SEO if you’re new to this game – knowing what to do. I am a newbie who is trying to write a simple film blog. Have been told effective SEO is very important.
Hi Nile,
great advice and post.
Your suggestion to write for humans (instead of search engines) makes a lot of sense. I agree there needs to be relevance.
Personally, I probably wouldn’t write much if I worried about keyword, and yet my posts quiet often show up on google within days on the first page.
Thanks for your post.
I think over SEO is not workable however some shared points are good and can help in SEO campaign but it is not completely workable thing for an ethical SEO campaign.
Hi Nile, the only thing I do is write quality article for humans with relevant keywords on it then get backlinks.
To do or not to do? I can’t understand Google. One side we are promoted to practice SEO, on the other we are penalized for doing more of it. What a dilemma!
Its so cute to think of any over SEO of your blog. I am of the opinion that SEO is never excessive. Any amount of SEO will pay you the dividends. The only requirement is that you should be clever to do it effectively. Remember, skill comes with experience.
Excellent post! Over Optimization has always been an issue. It’s just that Google and pushed the envelope a little further. I have been doing seo since 1997 and I have always advised my customers that the less a page appears to be optimized for the search engine the better it is.
The mentioned list of advice regarding SEO is all fine and dandy. The problem though is that in order to rank high on SEs, you have to compete with the top players who are spending big bucks for links, posts, and likes. The best bet for a small player was to blog and keyword stuff. Now the playing field has been even more skewed towards bigger companies.
Those are just my two cents.
I think SEO should always be subordinate to user experience–once SEO begins to decrease the experience of your visitors you need to stop. On page SEO is important, but offpage SEO is what will get your website to rank. On page SEO should work in a checklist fashion. Each post should have keywords in the title, proper headers, etc. but keyword density, relevant keywords, etc. should all be used sparingly.
I too have a competitive niche & sometimes i got exhausted what to do or what not to!!! – Well hoping for the best and working hard on that part!!!
Thanks Nile for the useful List
I think the key for writing website content should be to focus not so much on SEO but to write as if you were writing any other normal piece of marketing.
E.g – you’re not going to keep adding in keywords to a new flyer you’re coming up with.
Write for readers, not spiders. It does work!
hi admin…as mention step wise best technique to do seo.. i looking for this type of article..finally i got..thanks for sharing..waiting for your next article in this topic
Thanks! Sites loaded with too many advertisements and slower speeds really frustrate people and naturally we tend to skip to the next website without hesitation. Thus, the content on that page loses its value. So, simple sites are always better.
I completely agree with the author that over SEO optimization is also not good for our blog. We usually do this mistake to optimize our blog. Thanks to the author for sharing this article with us
When i start to work on my site I’m thinking first of the user then to spiders. I want users to be happy, to create a bond with them and after SEO. This will keep my visitors happy to return to my website and to gain popularity
Is it me or is the web filling up with mindless blogs (not the one above).
And I don’t just mean sites laden with ads, scripts, gimmicks, spun comment, barely disguised copied comment.
I mean blogs written be sane, educated human beings who are forced to do such by the insatiable beast that is Google.
I see the next update or the following one to deal with this.
They asked for blogs and now the ether is full of them.
Thank you man for sharing this White hat SEO
If you do over optimization for your site definitely you will be hit by Penguin and Google is refreshing its algorithm to get the quality site not the spammer.
Thank You very much… I am gng to apply this on ma blog! 🙂
Really a nice post and very helpful. There are some sites whose blogs have over use of SEO but there page rank is high.
Great. I always avoid over SEO because this is dangerous. Search engines are becoming more sharp and clever. You can’t tackle them so better keep yourself away from black hat tricks and over SEO because it’s not going to help.
Thanks for sharing Nile. It was good one
Thanks a lot for all the points on the over-optimization of SEO. I really agree to the point of a slow site, because number of bloggers add a lot of plugins and graphics to make their site decorative. Thanks once again, I look forward in implementing all of these on my site.
Rushikesh
Lot of thanks for sharing. It’s really nice post & very helpful post.
Thanks for sharing a important resource with us..optimization is to be keep in the limits for betterment of the site… if you have a unique idea to sell on google ,Google will never ask you to wait it automatically crawls the site and by link deploying you can get a good keywords ranks the care which you have to take in links deploying is deploy links with varied linking source will be real helpful
really nice tips thanks for sharing.
This is pleasant experience reading informative post on SEO, I’m getting educated more and more about blogging here, I would like to give you thanks for sharing this informative article. Keep encouraging in the ear of Panda and Penguins.
Overoptimizing your site will cause you to have a penalty from Google
After the recent Panda algorythm update, half of the web spammers w’re cut off…we hope on more justice in the future.
Very nice post you have. this article informative and helpful. I’m just amazed. Thanks for the helpful
Yes, I don’t do SEO fro my blog. I think this is good idea.
Over optimization is not good for seo.just do quality post and try to good way building backlinks but remind should be your blog content regularly updated.
Its very true over optimization is not good for SEO and for your blog also. After latest google update this is strictly outlawed. And you have proviede some idea that really nice.
Great publish, very informative. I’m wondering why the opposite experts of this sector do not notice this. You should continue your writing. I am confident, you’ve a huge readers’ base already!|What’s Going down i’m new to this, I stumbled upon this I’ve discovered It positively useful and it has helped me out loads. I hope to contribute & aid different customers like its helped me. Great job.
I will read more of your articles and videos. You have a good way for someone like me who is a novice at SEO and trying to do what I can to promote my website. I have hired a contract SEO from India who I must begin to pick up the article writing quality. What advice can you give
for writing articles? Keywords, length of article, etc.?
Articles should be no less than 300 words unless they are asides or other post formats. Your keywords should be prevalent in the title, first paragraph and at least 2-7 more times depending on the length of your article. You may also want to try capitalizing on not just single keywords, but also long tail keywords.
I will keep it in mind while blogging for seo.thank you
I accept to it but sometimes over optimization may also works in SEO to give better performance
I`m using some free plugins to follow up onsite SEO optimization. I usually have keyword density of about 3%. I`ll try to reduce it and look for better results. Thanks for advice!
hello nile
i am suffered from this so many times Over optimization is not good for seo.just do quality post and try to good way building backlinks but remind should be your blog content regularly updated.thnx for this nice post i will share it with my friends too,
regards
sakshi
Hi Nile!
How do you feel about SEO plugins for wordpress? I find they are good at helping people to follow “SEO guidelines”. I think it’s tough to find the right blend of keyword density to article length. Now they are introducing AMP pages for mobile which are going to shift how rankings are affected. They are purely focusing on simple content items such as text and images. It just goes to show you content is more than just king, it’s the entire kingdom. Great articles btw, just found your site for the first time and am reading many of the articles!
I see such a large number of locales composed for one reason just – SEO. Google needs it to look characteristic thus regularly destinations will concentrate exclusively on search engine optimization and disregard the substance. Content is entered as I would see it. A debt of gratitude is in order for sharing.
I accept to it but sometimes over optimization may also works in SEO to give better performance