Having a little bit of search engine optimization knowledge can prove to be dangerous. Why? Because people who read about SEO cannot wait to try it on to their sites and by doing so, it may lead to their site being overly optimized.
How is that possible, you may ask?
Limited knowledge of SEO, combined with no understanding of search engine algorithms, can contribute to your site being classified as spam and hence, overly optimized. This can result in a much lower ranking than when your site was not optimized.
Unnatural search engine optimization behavior raises a red flag, and consequently, your site can be instantly classified as overly optimized. Below are a few instances:
1. Yes, you know that meta tags, title tags, and H1 headings are vital parts of SEO. You try and optimize your site by placing all those keywords and phrases thinking that it will do your site good. Over optimization happens when subheadings repeat the key phrase or if all internal links use an anchor text that is similar to the title. While not quite on the same scale, this can come across as being quite similar to the keyword stuffing practices on early search engine optimization. For readers, it seems unnatural because people just do not write that way and for search engine algorithms, anything out of the ordinary can cause damage to real SEO.
2. Link building is a strategy that contributes to the success of search engine optimization. Internal linking, or linking a page of your site to other pages carries great value to SEO. You apply this SEO knowledge to your site, growing the list of cross-links, not knowing when to stop. Eventually, search engine algorithms catch on and view you as someone pushing their luck with SEO.
3. You give your site viewers great visual images that entice them, but below the fold is a large block of poorly written text stuffed with keywords and internal links. In most cases, seeing such a long paragraph will not invite visitors to read what is written. The great visuals are for the readers, but the text is for search engine spiders to crawl on. Unnatural, isn’t it? Search engine optimization will not work on sites that are not focused on users and optimized for conversion.
Take extra precautions when optimizing a page. Overdoing search engine optimization does not reap positive rewards and in fact, may even result to penalties.
Or better yet, leave the optimizing to search engine optimization experts.