Over-optimising a website? Really?

What is website over-optimisation?

A relic of the SEO Wild West days of black hat techniques, over-optimisation is when webmasters have implemented every trick in the SEO book to improve their website’s ranking.

An abundance of keywords and a multitude of links from random websites used to be all that was needed to rise those SERPs. But times change. As Google’s algorithms have advanced, so too have the actions considered to be over-optimising.



5 signs of website over-optimisation



1.   Keyword rich internal links

Internal links get a big thumbs up for SEO. Do take care about the anchor (phrase) you are selecting to link from. There has been a shift from keywords being the best SEO option for links, and context has become more important. Blend the keyword into a longer anchor text and mix up the style of anchor.

TIP: don’t just focus on internal links to the main pages, link to blogs too. The SEO benefits of a blog are multi-faceted. Click here to learn more.

2.   Using more than 1 H1

The H1 title of a page is the article or blog title. Its priority is to tell the reader and the search engines what the page or article is about, unlike links, your H1 title can boldly include keywords.

H1 titles become a liability in SEO content when they are used more than once on a page. Make use of the H2. H3 and H4 – it helps with formatting too; remember, user experience is king!

3.   Full-on footers

What’s going on with the footer on your website. Have you filled it with lots of information? Have you used it as a handy navigation tool? Perhaps you have listed all your offices or shops?

The search engine’s indexing bots do not spend any significant time on the footers – the click through rate is negligible. If you have keyword stuffed your footer with the hope of gaining sneaky SEO kudos, you risk being tagged as an over-optimised website and penalised accordingly. Your footer should be kept nice and simple – name, address, and contact details. Scroll to the end of this page for an example of an expertly crafted footer.

4.   A backlink frenzy

Backlinks (when a different website links back to your website) holds high SEO juice and esteem. Building too many backlinks to your website over a short period of time is unnatural and raises a red flag.

If you are tempted to spam directories and comment sections with links to your website, resist. Google clocks suspicious activity and will penalise you. Instead, focus on quality over quantity. Guest posts, for example, are a great way to introduce and control quality backlinks.

TIP: Only link to high quality websites for sources of information. You do not want to get tarred with the same brush as a toxic spammy network! You are the company you keep.

5.   Keyword abuse

Laser like focus is required for identifying keywords to focus your energies on. Do not be tempted to chase keywords that are irrelevant to your business purely to rank for them. For example, XXX rated keywords may get you more visitors, but if they are nothing to do with your landscaping business, you will get penalised. Too much unrelated SEO content annoys search engines and visitors.

The key ingredients to successfully navigate SEO are an agile and flexible website design to handle the changing demands of the digital landscape, and a strong commitment to maintain it. Of course, in the real world you are too busy running the business in the day-to-day, which is where Digital Presence can help you.

Digital Presence is a Christchurch digital marketing agency. We develop future proof websites, which together with our passion for SEO, deliver outstanding online marketing results for our clients. For a free, no obligation chat, drop us a line or call 0274 278047.