Is my website over-optimized? • Yoast

You need your content material to rank. We perceive! However you need to watch out that you just don’t go overboard in your optimization methods. So what’s the distinction between search engine optimisation and over-optimization? And the way do you acknowledge an over-optimized web site? On this submit, we are going to reply each questions!

What’s over-optimization?

We consider {that a} web site is over-optimized if the strategies geared toward rating excessive hurt the standard of the positioning. In such a case, guests of the web site may have a special and worse expertise.

For instance: in case your texts develop into exhausting or annoying to learn, then you definately’re in all probability stuffing them with key phrases you wish to be discovered on. Maybe there are uncountable numbers of hyperlinks in your web site, and also you’re in all probability making an attempt to over-optimize your anchor texts.

Methods you possibly can over-optimize your web site

Let’s have a look at all of the methods you possibly can over-optimize your web site, so you realize what not to do.

Key phrase stuffing

Key phrase stuffing is the obvious solution to over-optimize your web site. After all, utilizing your key phrase plenty of occasions will assist together with your rating. Google will perceive what your submit is about and rank it accordingly. Over-optimized textual content, nevertheless, is unreadable. Should you put your key phrase in each (different) sentence, your textual content will develop into horrible to learn. No one desires to learn a weblog submit about pink ballet footwear if each sentence accommodates the key phrase [pink ballet shoes]. Even people who find themselves genuinely all in favour of pink ballet footwear will get irritated.

Too many inner hyperlinks

You may not instantly take into consideration web site construction when you concentrate on over-optimizing your web site. However in the event you level all of your inner and exterior hyperlinks to your homepage or contact web page, since you need them to rank excessive, you’re undoubtedly not doing it proper.

If you wish to have site structure, your inner and exterior hyperlinks ought to go to your in-depth content material and your homepage. A very good rule of thumb is 50% to your homepage and different most important navigation pages, and 50% to your in-depth pages or content material.

Rating for non-relevant key phrases

It is perhaps tempting to attempt to rank for in style search phrases. In spite of everything, extra individuals will see your web site! However that’s not essentially true. If this ‘additional’ key phrase or keyphrase has nothing to do together with your content material, individuals will notice your content isn’t helpful and depart your web site. This received’t look good to Google. In actual fact, having an excessive amount of content material optimized for unrelated key phrases may even make your web site rank decrease within the search end result pages.

One other solution to over-optimize your web site is by stuffing your footer with key phrases and hyperlinks. They don’t actually add any worth to your search engine optimisation, since they aren’t crawled usually and Google devalues footer hyperlinks. However you are risking over-optimization.

Moreover, having a cluttered footer additionally makes for a poor person expertise. Individuals principally use a footer to get referred to your socials or simply entry your contact particulars. And as we at all times say: it’s best to design and optimize your web site on your customers, not Google.

Penalties of an over-optimizated web site

Should you’re taking the optimization of your content material just a little too far, you might be risking a Panda penalty. If Panda hits you, you’ll discover a sudden drop in your rankings. Over-optimizing your content material may, due to this fact, backfire.

And that’s simply Google. An over-optimized web site additionally has penalties on your UX, and due to this fact on your customers. A submit full of key phrases isn’t straightforward or enjoyable to learn, and a textual content stuffed with hyperlinks isn’t enticing both. Would you wish to share that kind of content material on social media? Most likely not. So, an over-optimized web site may trigger you to obtain much less social media consideration. The underside line: in case your guests get irritated, they’ll be much less inclined to purchase one thing or return to your web site.

Our recommendation for over-optimization

Although you might have good intentions, an over-optimized web site means there’s an excessive amount of of factor. It implies that the UX or readability of your web site has suffered out of your search engine optimisation technique. At Yoast, we observe holistic SEO. That is backed up by Google, who states they wish to give the person one of the best end result. With our search engine optimisation technique, we at all times goal to one of the best end result.

So, write the best content, be certain that the UX of your web site is flawless, cowl all technical elements, and maintain the security of your web site. With out making any concessions to the standard of your web site, you are able to do quite a few issues to optimize your web site for the major search engines.

Learn extra: How to write a high quality and SEO-friendly blog post »