Seo - Over Optimization And The Oop - Does A Penalty Exist?

Over Optimization And The Oop - Does A Penalty Exist?

If you have questions about whether or not the Over-Optimization Penalty (OOP) exists or not, then you obviously haven't pushed the limits enough with your own website optimization or organic SEO efforts to have experienced the joys of running into the OOP (Over-Optimization Penalty).

I'm sure you're probably thinking: "prove it". If that's what you're thinking, let me tell you about a specific example of what I call the Over-Optimization Penalty, or OOP:

Over-Optimization penalty because of too much anchor text.You decide that your site is not ranking well. So, you change the navigation on your site so that all the home page links say "keyword keyword home" instead of "home". A few days later you lose your rankings, which is a serious blow to your traffic. Since that was the only thing you changed on your site you change those links to your home page back so it says, "home" instead of "keyword keyword home". BINGO! All of your lost rankings and your lost traffic comes back a few days later.

If that's not proof of an over-optimization penalty then I don't know what is--I would call that an OOP: you do something to try to boost your rankings by over optimizing some element of your website, something that backfires and causes a loss of rankings.

I personally can name tons of other examples just like this that prove that there's an OOP.

One more thing--I think that you can over-optimize a web page or site without going as far as actually spamming. In the example above, I truly believe that having too much of the same anchor text isn't spamming, it's just over-optimization. Spamming, in my book, would be something like keyword stuffing or something like repeating a keyword over and over again. Over optimization is different than spamming.

White Hat, Gray Hat, and Black HatWhether or not you think the OOP (an over-optimization penalty) exists depends on what type of "hat" you wear.

If you're a true "white hat" SEO that won't dare test the limits then you're going to believe that the OOP doesn't exist. After all, you'll never experience any over-optimization penalties because you won't dare do anything that would possibly have a negative effect on search engine rankings.

If you're a true "grey hat" SEO then you've definitely experienced the OOP, just like I've described in a previous post. For example, you've gone a little too heavy on your anchor text so you have to "back off" on using your keywords in the anchor text. Or, you realize that your keyword density on a page is too high--OOPS! you've just experienced the over-optimization penalty (OOP).

If you're a true "black hat" SEO then you definitely know that there's a difference between an over-optimization penalty and being a spammer. If you've never had a site banned in a search engine then you're not a true "black hat" SEO. And if you've experienced rankings that have suddenly vanished because of too much over-optimization then yes, you probably believe in the OOP, just like I do.

There is a very big difference between over-optimization and spamming. Spamming will get your site banned. Over-optimization will not. The "penalty", if you will, is a loss of search engine rankings due to over-optimization. Thus, that's what gray hat and black hat Search Engine Optimization Specialists call the OOP.

Bill Hartzer is a successful writer and search engine marketing expert who has personally created hundreds of websites over the years. Bill created his first website back in 1996 to help promote his former database software business. It was then when he learned about the power of the search engines and web search, which helped potential customers find his business online.

Bill Hartzer has over 15 years of professional writing experience. He has survived stints as a writer for television, as well as a technical writer for several computer software companies in Florida and in Texas. Mr. Hartzer combines his writing and online skills to create compelling and useful websites for corporations worldwide. Mr. Hartzer focuses on the optimization in the business to business arena, but applies these optimization skills to business to consumer websites, as well. He currently is the one of the Administrators at the Search Engine Forums website.

| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 |

Are Your Keywords Making Money For You?
I built my website, it's perfect. My chosen subject of the website is Computer Support Services. Of course this is an example, but moving along, what should my keywords be?Keywords are what people type into a search engine to find something on the internet. These words are what drive user requests.Words to live by I like to call them. Why? Because on the internet your website will live and die by the words you use, or the words I use when you hire me to optimize your site.How many words should I use?What ...(related: Seo)

Search Engines The Masters Of The Internet Universe ? Part 3
This is part three of the article series and deals with the paid inclusion and organic search results from search engines.We touched on the topic of Kibitzing in the last part, now we will deal with some of the new concepts in search engine submission namely Paid Inclusion and Sponsored Results. Web sites have evolved from being perspective gen...(related: Seo)

Table Structures For Top Search Engine Positioning
So you have a beautiful website that you paid a pretty penny for and you are completely happy with it ? except no one can find it. Many web designers do not understand search engine positioning, so when they design your website little or no thought is given to the elements of design that may affect your rankings on search engines. On the other hand some search engine positioning...(related: Seo)

Seo And The Outsourcing Of Inbound Link Building
Search Engine Optimization nowadays has a lot to do with building inbound links to your website. Building inbound links is a cumbersome tasks and webmasters have always been looking for shortcuts to do this. Webmasters buy links (as advertising as an example) or contact other webmasters to exchange links with them. The need for inbound links has created a n...(related: Seo)

Keyword Demand Isnt Enough
I get half of the world traffic for the term "dirtbagging," on one page of my backpacking site, but that only means ten visitors a month. Without decent keyword demand you can't ever get much traffic. Total demand is just one factor to consider, though. Here are s...(related: Seo)

Answers Count - Matching Keyword And Phrase Density
What's more important to your business success - the question or the answer? Certainly, you want your questions to reflect what...(related: Seo)

How To Get A Website Indexed Fast
Get Indexed FastWhat does getting indexed mean?The search engines keep a cache of every web page in theirindex.In English, this means: The search engines make a copy ofevery web page they visit and put in their records? ummm, Ithink that's what I mean.When you use a search engine the results list relevantpages to your search, usually ten results per page.Each result includes a live "link" to the page, and a"cache" or "snap-shot" of the page, recorded the last timethe s...(related: Seo)

Youve Got The Power, Why Arent You Promoting It?
Like all things, theft is theft, misery loves company, negative people are everywhere, business is sometimes bad, things go up and others go down.If those are all true then knowledge is power right? Wrong, knowledge is only power if applied. So why is it that most of us only apply "commercialized" marketing tactics and fail to utilize the little stuff that counts?For instance, Google allows us to promote 2 url's, www.yoursite.com & http://yoursite.comSo ok. Nothing new...Then why aren't you promoting the power Google gave to you?See there's some of us who know that adding a link to both urls within our sites is a powerful thing. But what most of us don't k...(related: Seo)

Is New Msn Search More Precise? Just Ask Google
MSN finally unleashed its new search technology to the world on Monday. The official announcement coming from Bill Gates introduced the New MSN Search engine, ending with a personal invitation to visit www.msn.com and ā??type in your question.ā??Here at WebAdvantage.net, we consider ourselves to be veteran internet searchers, often able to easily...(related: Seo)

Seo Facts
The internet is the largest market place on earth. It offers unparalleled access to an international base of consumers ? and referrers. However, the internet is also an extremely overcrowded place. With such an opportunity to make a business presentation to the world, many companies seek to take advantage of this ...(related: Seo)

Tread Towards A Successful ?internet Research?
Internet is a terrific resource containing billions of web pages dedicated to thousands of topics. Since the amount of information available on the Internet is so vast and mind baffling you may feel lost.Your expectations from "The Information Superhighway" will crash if you proceed with the general view that exaggerates the ease of Internet usage. What is required is a moderate, balanced approach keeping one's head on shoulders. Approaching the net should be similar to any other research endeavor i.e. by adopting a formal strategy to maximize results. "Motivation" is the key word here. If you do not have a serious research goal, you cannot dig far.To make the search a more meaningful exer...(related: Seo)