Off-Site Over-Optimization Is Now Possible!

Sat, May 9, 2009

Link Management, Search Engine Optimization, Work From Home, seo, seo-tips


We are now all aware that Google recently updated its algorithms to the benefits of some and the downfall of others.

If there was one simple way of summarizing the major changes made by Google it would be to say that Google is looking for results as “natural” as possible.

Perfect is not Natural

Imperfection is the name of the game. Clearly doing great SEO work be it on site or off site certainly helps a lot; yet doing too much of it can hurt you too!

I don’t think I need to elaborate much on on-site over-optimization, most of you probably have heard about that recently.

You know, when you place too many keywords too well located in a too consistent manner on your page, it triggers a signal to Google that you are doing something with the intention of influencing the search engine ranking.

Google doesn’t like that at all, and before you know it, you could be relinquished to the rank of a spammer… not so good.

This is why your on-site optimization should have some flaws, not major ones of course, but your optimization shouldn’t be “perfect”.

One major trigger is often the abuse of keyword in ALL the “alt” text of your pictures. Sometimes having a link to the home page labeled “Home” may just work better for you than a nicely optimized “Make Money Online” in this regard.

Off Site Over Optimization

If most of you are aware of on-site over-optimization, I’m pretty sure however that you hardly ever think of off-site over-optimization.

We all know (though I hope you do by now) that off-site optimization is probably the most important factor in calculating your ranking position in the search engines.

It’s all about inbound links and their anchor text.

Getting a lot of inbound links is great and getting them with powerful anchor text is even better, but like for on-site optimization, too many good things become a bad thing because it’s not “natural”.

Unnatural Link Growth

Google is very wary about abnormal link growth. Sure enough, your exponential link growth could be due to your excellent marketing skill or use of a viral marketing tool and in such case you shouldn’t worry too much thanks to the new upcoming link velocity algorithm.

On the other hand, if your work has been “enhanced” by joining one of those programs that will get you 10,000 links instantly, or even simply 100 (depending of your usual link growth rate), you’ll trigger a red flag signal to Google.

I know, if you are really conscious about your site and your SEO this is relatively unlikely to happen but nonetheless I have to mention it to you.

However, what comes next is an entire different story…

Anchor Text Abuse

Ah… the so ever famous anchor text… people use it and abuse it over and over.

Depending on what anchor text is used, we know that a site can rank very differently for given keywords. This is why it’s very important to choose your anchor text very carefully.

So, what is a “natural” anchor text?

A “natural” anchor text would be anything that people would normally use to refer to you or your site. The most common choices are your brand name (if you have one), your name, or your website name.

Now you have to agree with me that someone you don’t know is very unlikely to link to you referring your site by writing something like:

“I recently came across this great site [link]refinance your mortgage, mortgage for all, instant refinancing for student and unemployed[/link] about mortgage financing.”

Instead, the anchor texts are more likely to be something like:

  • “I recently came across this great site [link]http://www.example.com[/link] about mortgage financing.”
  • “I recently came across this great site [link]Finatec[/link] about mortgage financing.”
  • “I recently came across this great site about mortgage financing by [link]John Doe[/link].”
  • “I recently came across this great [link] mortgage financing site[/link] by John Doe.”

If more than 10-20% of your anchor text links are optimized ones instead of the more “natural” ones, you may raise again a red flag and may get the value of those backlinks devalued too.

This is another cause of loss of PageRank recently alongside with the “unnatural link exchanges” devaluation.

In Conclusion

SEO is very important for your site, and I’m aware that you are conscious about it. Being penalized for over-optimization doesn’t mean that you are a spammer; it just states that you are trying too hard.

So keep in mind, too much good is bad when it comes to SEO with Google.

Keep things natural and allow yourself not to be optimized all the time for everything everywhere!


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This post was written by:

Nicolas Prudhon - who has written 8 posts on Work From Home Business Blog. Nicolas Prudhon, PhD is a professional SEO strategist, as well as published author.He's dedicated to provide SEO help to people through his site. Join his latest free SEO training course "21 Days SEO Mastery" now!

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  • Awesome stuff as usual. I will be bookmarking your site and checking all future posts. OVER optimizing...wow!! I always heard to put your anchor text for everything everywyhere to rank...now its the opposite. Just this week, i used my keyword too much, and went back a few pages...ugh!

    so i know its true :) thanks

    Sheila
  • Hi Sheila,

    One of the most important thing when it comes to SEO is truly staying up to date with the latest information and happening.

    What helped your site a few years ago may actually harm it today...
  • One solution to this 'dilemma' is to diversify your link building from various sources.
  • bathroomshower
    One can have fun while blogging and that really true. Analytics is the most valuable thing for getting nee details for working more specially for traffic.
  • You don't always need to have fun to run a successful website, however it's a must when it comes to blogging or you'll quickly be running out of motivation and ideas as to what to write.

    Analytics is where all the real optimization work is done.
  • I'm still learning to optimize my website for more traffic. Analytics are so helpful getting in new readers. On my website I'm getting traffic on search terms I'd have never thought of. I’m still in build traffic phase but am having so much fun blogging.
  • That's very true, working out the details out of your analytics will help you a lot increase your web presence and traffic.

    Personally I don't think we should ever be out of the build traffic phase, and you are in the best conditions to succeed, if you are really enjoying what you are doing! :)
  • Lol anchor text abuse.. But hmm that's what most people go for!
  • Yes, and that why we can see a lot of sites seeing their PageRank drop among many other things.
  • Nicolas,

    In your post (another great one) you state “One major trigger is often the abuse of keyword in ALL the “alt” text of your pictures.”

    I get my SEO and marketing education form several website and I clearly remember that I was told to use the ALT tag for every image on my website because if I don't I would be violating the rights of people with disabilities. I also believe that the W3C also said the following according to some of the notes I've taken over time:

    “Millions of people with disabilities are surfing the Internet every day, and even more millions are using poor browser equipment, or working under difficult user environments.
    If your website lacks features, such as re-sizable fonts, or images with no descriptions, these people will not be able to access your information.
    In fact: Your site violates the rights of these people.
    Some reasons for making your site more accessible:
    It will improve your reputation and image
    It will improve your customer satisfaction
    It will increase your number of visitors
    It will let your visitors stay longer at your site
    It will increase the number of returning visitors
    It will make your site more usable also for people with no disabilities
    It will make your site more usable for users with images turned off
    It will make your site more usable for people with older equipment
    It will let you reach the fastest growing population: older people”

    Since I mentioned the W3C I need to refer to something else you said “This is why your on-site optimization should have some flaws, not major ones of course, but your optimization shouldn’t be “perfect”. ”

    Well if that is the case why does the W3C and their guideline even exist? As webmaster's isn't it our responsibility to create websites that will ensure the long term growth of the internet. We do this by providing clean code, providing for needs of everyone (disabled or not) that may visit our sites and by adhering to initiatives that will come in the future.
    Paul
  • Hi Paul,

    Sorry for the late reply, I missed your comment.

    I totally agree with the W3C and this is what I'm saying too actually. All your images should have "Alt" tags, but there's a huge difference between a picture of a sunset with an alt tag "Sunset view from Colorado" and the alt tag "Make money online, quick money method, how to make money online, money online easy, make more money online".

    Just likewise, when I refer to flaws in your optimization, I imply that all your alt descriptions don't need to be optimize for SEO purpose.

    The W3C emphasize usability, not Keyword stuffing.

    I totally agree with what you said as how a webmaster should behave, but all too many are not that ethical unfortunately, and this is the reason why Google took such measures too.
  • Google is changing. Right now, I prefer using my keywords in my URL so that is someone is linking to me using my URL, I know that my keywords are in it.
  • That's also a good alternative provided you don't abuse of it by having overly long URLs with too many keywords in them.
  • I'm trying to improve my site's traffic. I'm looking for online resources, freelancer or companies that will help with site optimization.
  • You can always feel free to come and visit my site :)
  • seo book uk
    You off the mark here my seo book org site only has "seo book" links maby 1 or 2 are seo book uk
    does it hurt at at all I been on the middle of page 1 for years
    In fact in the past 2 years all I have done is remove links not get links.
    I was in the penalty box for awhile a few years ago
    I know the penalty box real well been it many times.
    I know how to get out of it. Google is very forgiven when you remove bad links.
    Next year I write my SEO book and explain all
    Find your bad links and remove them if you can
  • That's one of the "good" thing, you can quickly get in, but you also can go out quickly when you fix the issue, for on-site, it takes about 1 week to see the changes.

    And like you outlined again, prevail link quality over quantity!
  • Very insightful post, Nicolas. I've already seen a drop in my rankings due to a probable on-site over optimization. I'm making tweaks to hopefully get back on page one for my main keyword.
  • If that's the case, you should get back your previous ranking within a week or so :)
    Good Luck!
  • I've moved up to about 10 positions, and hopefully will get back on the first page here soon. Thanks!
  • But surely... it's hard for Search Engines to really penalize sometimes... I mean... as the saying goes... a competitor can take you down if they knew what the "magic" bullet was to decrease rankings, based on off-site optimization. I would think.... that there is no actual "negative" impact on certain off-site optimization, etc. But rather, there may be "zero" impact instead. I think that would be a more "fair" way for the search engines to do it. Otherwise... Everyone would be working to take down their competition by building them bad links.
  • Zero impact does is a form of penalization, as your links loose their authority, so does your site, and thus your possible ranking drop or PR loss. It won't be as dramatic as on site over optimization but it's something to be aware of nonetheless.
  • Well, it's kind of ironic that I'm asking in a blog comment, but... if I make too many blog comments with a dofollow tag, could I be penalized for that? I like reading blogs and usually like to leave a comment, so I always just tacked on a site when asked for it. Should I slow down with that?
  • No, you don't have any risk of being penalized for that, On site over optimization really penalize and can drop you really bad, however the way you get penalized for off site over optimization is by diminishing the value of the doubtful links, which in overall reduce your authority which could in turn be reflected by a loss in ranking.

    The truth is that blog commenting carries very little value as a link, and thus you are not really influencing your ranking by dong so.
  • Alex, just make sure you leave honor comments, don't leave 1-2 liner comments, if you leave excessive comments in a day, akismet might treat u as spammer and might blocked you from commenting as well (If the blog has installed Akismet plugin, but most of them have it). Nicolas 's blog is a dofollow blog, I see that he is doing quite well with his blog, there is no problem to make your blog comment with dofollow tag. :D

    Regards,
    Lee
  • This is some great information, I had no idea I had to be so careful with my link building. I do try to put my keywords into the anchor text, but it makes sense to not overdo it - I think Google gets smarter all the time, which forces us to be more and more "natural". Thanks for the info!
  • I think you are going to do just fine Petra, the most important is not going in the details of all those rules changes, but instead to understand how the situation is and where we are heading to.

    From there, it's quite easy to do thing today that will still work in the future no matter how much the algorithms change.
  • Quality over quantity certainly goes for links as well as content. I remember when one of my very first sites...an e-commerce site with very little content...went from 0-3 in a very short period of time.

    I had ONE incoming link at the time from another PR 3 site.
  • This certainly is a golden rule Dennis, unfortunately too many feel their ego much more inflated with growing numbers, even if they are worthless.
  • Nicolas has always been writing great articles.

    When people abuse using the same anchor text links, they get stuck in the "Google Sandbox" permanently. The SEO companies do not rank high in the search engine by getting 100% of their anchor text links as "SEO Company".

    I found this blog in Nicolas' newsletter, and now I am bookmarking it!
  • Thank you Kai for your feedback, very much appreciated.

    What people need to keep in mind is that in SEO what is popular is not always the correct way. Anyway, there can be only 1 at the top of the SERPs.

    This is where most of a SEO companies have a great time. While you work like hell on things that brings only small results, they focus their own time to do things that really works.
  • Hi Nicolas,

    This really looks somewhat scary, as I always have think Google it is never reliable to predict. One day doing something can be good and next they change the rules completely. I actually prefer to write for my readers then for Google. Anyway if you want success and the money that comes with it, is Readers who actually pay not the search engines.

    Luis
  • Yeah I think that's one of the most important parts of blogging. You're not trying to sell yourself first, you need to appeal to your readers and let them know who you are.
    Most authors aren't known for sales before their books.
  • Actually Luis I feel that Google is VERY predictable! Don't you see a pattern of actions here?

    The best SEO, the new SEO that I call the Human Visitor Optimization could be called or nicknamed the "Invisible SEO".

    The more what you do will be and look natural the better it will be for you. Yes that will only give advantage to the people providing quality content, but isn't that what we are looking for when using the search engines?
  • Jim
    NIcolas, My experience with using keywords in comments is it helps a great deal. I own a business directory. When I post a comment which I actively edit to include relevant keywords it helps a great deal with the organic rankings for that advertiser.
  • I do understand the concern that google has about the page rankings and whatnot. Why allow your search engine to be used for money you probably will not make? Might be great or awful if they decide to take things one step further and add in their own PPC.
  • Sorry, I'm not sure to understand what you are trying to say. Would you mind rephrasing it please?
  • Well google only lists the sites and in that sense they make nothing from it. A third party person sees how they change the rankings on google's rankings and then puts his businesses on the first page.
    I believe google is trying to place emphasis on information rather than sales for their search engine. Since google isn't making money off of the reording of page rankings it could feel that allowing this could easily push fundamental informational websites down off the first page and have a full front page of advertisements.

    They may change their decisions on this though, imagine if you could just buy the page rankings.
  • Ok, got it sorry about earlier :)

    I think it's very unlikely because for paid position, Google offers Adwords advertising, this helps to keep the things in perspective.

    Buying your ranking is very much at the antipodes of what the values of Google are so I thinks this is very unlikely to happen.
  • Very interesting article Nicolas. I'm new to SEO and have read before about OnPage over-optimisation. This is a slightly scary addition by Google, but I guess that it will lead to better search results as the sites with more natural links will be on top.
  • Thank you, I really appreciate your feedback. I agree with you, it may sound a bit scary at first, but when you really think about it, unless you really do something wrong and go over board, there isn't much to worry about.

    And like you said, if we really can get better search results, I'm all for it in the end!
  • Did leaving hundreds of comments by day does count as a going over board? How much it is too much?
  • No but if you really have the time to leave hundreds of comments by day, then I would suggest you to do something else more productive and rewarding for your site if your goal is truly SEO.
  • Very interesting post, thanks for good reading
  • you but they get so complexed you don't really know what you need to do in order to better the seo process
  • First thing first, great original quality content this is where 90% of the sites fail. By doing this alone you will outrank many sites!

    SEO will then help you make this already amazing content even better.
  • Thanks for the tips and updates, It's hard to tell what google is looking for from day to day. It seems they are changing things on a daily basis.
  • Just as we should work continuously to improve our sites, so does Google at trying to provide its users with the best results possible.

    The key is to observe the big picture and find a somewhat of a pattern in the evolution of their algorithm and anticipate the changes accordingly.
  • Did commenting still a good way of building links? If this stops to work then I think a lot of comments will stop to arrive to our blogs.
  • On a scale of 1 to 4 where 4 is the best, Blog commenting will get a 2.

    Yes you can create a lot of links, but most of them will be of poor quality and very low value to your site from a pure SEO point of view.

    Now, those links may get you some traffic, but that's another story :)
  • In order to rank well by getting more natural backlinks, writing good and useful content and wait for people to link or refer our post, that's the best way ever, but it requires a lot of hard works.
    Between, Nicolas I'm still curious on why my pagerank dropped from PR3 to PR2 since the last updated, I thought it would be improving. Perhaps too many outgoing links at the main page? (I have 5 links for article contributors before). Perhaps too less of incoming links?
    But I don't mind about that anymore, I just write whatever I like and wait for next PR update, I'm trying to building more backlinks as well. :)

    Regards,
    Lee
  • Hi Lee, your drop of PR is most likely linked to the poor quality of your links - it's the same problem for most of the people.

    Anyway, like you said, there's no point spending too much time focusing on this and instead put your efforts in writing high quality content that people want to link to.
  • I have over 180 posts so now i'm working on the link building process to increase my traffic as well as my pr
  • The quality of your posts matters more than the quantity. If what you provide is link worthy, then it will be linked.
  • well its not quantity writing its quality writing at it's finest at least to me it is if not otherwise.
  • Yea, quality is more important than quantity. During the Problogger 31DBBB, the first few days, one of the tutorial was asking us to write list post to improve our blog. I'd done 1 list post, I did get few people to link to that post. With that said, if you write good content and interesting post, people might be more likely to link your article. :)

    Regards,
    Lee
  • This is really good advice here. It's all about being social and not selling out "too much".
  • Definitely, too hard sell your blog might scares your readers. The only way to keep your readers and make them come back to read your blog next time is writing useful and great content, that's the only way to make your blog "Sticky".

    Regards,
    Lee
  • I think so, because when I check the blog that links my blog, some of them don't have similar niche with mine, so I know they're useful for my blog. Between, I did find out few dead links in my blog too, I'd deleted them and do link exchange with few high PR buddies as well. Besides of these, I've written a few blog post that learned from Problogger 31DBBB, I got few incoming links to that post as well!
    So I know writing high quality useful content is the king!

    I just wait for the next PR updates and see what will happen. :D

    Regards,
    Lee
  • It's good news for those of us who doesn't spam and builds up website and blogs intended for people and not SE crawlers. And surely it is great that people who can write great content doesn't end up on page Googles page 50, because they are not SEO experts...
  • Hi Casper, SEO still matters and will make the difference but just at a different level now.

    Before knowing SEO was necessary to rank well but no longer.

    First of all, writing great content is the primary key to rank well, just by doing so you'll outrank most of the site. Now, among the top ranked sites with amazing content, the victory will the be handled to the one who has the most knowledge of SEO to leverage on the extra details.
  • So right now socializing and writing quality content will give us more benefits than regular SEO?
  • SEO is not about making bad content good, it's about making Good content even better!
  • This sounds like good news for the disorganized like me :) I have a number of websites that I switch between promoting. I don't use keywords that much when I comment on blogs.

    I will wait for my competitors to fall in the rankings!
  • neither do I but I have started to because I noticed its the best way to rank for specific keywords
  • Anyway, the value of keywords in comments is very low so you are not missing much. As you can see, I don't use keywords either in comments, it's just my name.

    It's a good opportunity to balance the ratio of natural anchor texts.
  • Nicolas, did you think that at least the keywords can be useful for humans? so they can see your keyword and maybe interested to click on your comment and visit your site.
  • That's a point of view of course, and possibly a legitimate one.

    Now personally, I prefer people to click on my link to visit my site because they got interested in my comments rather than my keywords.

    I may not get as much visitors this way, but they sure are of better quality to me.
  • very interesting you bring that up I thought its an excellent way to rank for your keywords but I guess i'm back to square one
  • Me too:-) yes... a win for the disorganized!

    I loved reading this very well written and easy to read being new at SEO I'm still learning to optimize my website for more traffic. Analytics are so helpful getting in new readers. On my website I'm getting traffic on search terms I'd have never thought of. I’m still in build traffic phase but am having so much fun blogging.
  • TheTiny1
    I have never thought about this. Of course I'm still in the learning phase of SEO and so it might be understandable. I now know to look out for too fast and too large growth.
    Thanks for the article it was well written and has very useful information in it.

    Your insights are always welcome to me.

    Bright Blessings
    TheTiny1
  • Fast and large growth is OK as long as it is the result and in context of an effective marketing strategy such as a social buzz, not if it is done using doubtful methods, or strategies in order to inflate your status quickly.
  • How much it seems too much? Maybe we that are not very known guys a fast growth almost overnight can be strange but for any celebrity like maybe someone like Shaquille Oneal or Barack Obama they may have thousands of links in minutes after launching a site.

    Didn´t this overnight growth may Google think that site maybe doing some blackhat strategies?

    Luis
  • Luis, indeed too much is relative to your standard growth which is proper to your own site.

    Just imagine yourself as working for Google and look at what you have done and how you did it. Does it looks and feels like you want to say:

    " WOW this guy is a genius, his marketing strategy is really awesome!"

    or

    "Humm... ok... that looks a bit strange..."
  • And these facts are especially true for new sites. Aged sites will have a little more slack from the SEs to get a greater amount of links in a few days than brand new sites.

    As for the decrease in pagerank I would like to learn some more Nicolas. I've never heard that mentioned. Have you done some tests on that or where have you learned about it?

    Thanks,
    Mikael
  • wonderful post it was very detailed and you really did go out of your way to write a great quality article good job Peter
  • @article drip robot: Yeah I wish I was the one who wrote this too :). If you missed it, I mentioned that this post is a guest post and written by Nicolas Prudhon, who is a regular guest poster here on this blog.
  • Hi Mikael, it is a combination of both, I have run several tests (I quite fond of testing lately :) ...) and also from the feedbacks I have collected around.

    The percentage I gave however, is my own estimate, it could be more it could be less, but I see this ratio as quite reasonable myself, Rand Fiskin will rather consider an even lower ratio below 10% himself.

    In the end, it's quite simple with Google. Everything you do, either it will increase your ranking, either it will decrease your ranking.

    Just ask yourself if you were working for the search engines, if you were looking at your own linking structure and anchor text variations, would it looks like something mostly "natural" or clearly something mostly "artificial"... and you got your answer as to what will follow.
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