5 ways to avoid over-optimisation of your website

It is said that even too much sweetness tastes bitter and likewise it’s the case for online marketing called SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). SEO is an important factor for optimising your website however, too much SEO can simply destroy everything you are trying to achieve.

SEO is a practice of making your website or content familiar to search engines and increasing its ranking status. When SEO was hype in previous years, over-optimisation was usually the process taken to get ranked. It was as simple as using an abundance of keywords, and exchanging thousands of spammy links. But as we all know technology is never constant and is evolving rapidly over-optimisation is no longer effective. Today SEO depends on meaningful content with genuine link exchanges.

There are many ways of utilising SEO for the better results. Here are 5 ways to avoid over-optimisation of your website.

1. Avoid using multiple H1 tags in a page

When do we usually use H1 tags? It’s when we have main headings which are highlighted. Using H1 tags is a good choice for SEOs but it doesn’t mean using multiples. On a page, only use one H1 tag. Besides, you can use multiple H2, H3, H4 tags on your page.

2. Avoid using keyword stuffed footers

Now here comes the point which most webmasters use. Stuffing your footer with keywords. Avoid over optimisation which has an adverse effect on SEOs.

Although the position of the footer is at the bottom of the page it receives minimal crawler recognition, evidence shows that Google devalues footer links. Your footer is supposed to be a nice closure to your page which should be simple and navigable– it is not the place for keyword stuffing and adds no value for SEOs. Design your footer by keeping users in mind and not Google.

3. Avoid using non-relevant keywords

Gone are the days when some webmasters placed adult-themed keywords in their content for generating maximum traffic to their websites. Google is becoming smarter and it looks for the keyword relevancy.  If you have a niche IT (Information Technology) site, then avoid using food or pet related keywords or articles which are irrelevant to your website.
4. Avoid pointing all internal or external links to home page

It’s good to have links that are genuinely pointing to internal and home pages.  But many webmasters use excessive links to the homepage or to the top-level navigational pages such as “About us”, “Services” which is known as over optimisation. Have few links pointing to the home page and some pointing to the internal pages. A healthy ratio is 1:1 or 50% of the links pointing to internal links.

Use internal linking via your content marketing. If people love the content or blog your webpage then they will definitely create a link to your article rather than the home page. So it’s a good way for getting an internal link.

5. Avoid using non-branded and keyword-dense URLs

It’s a smart choice to use a keyword based domain URL for your business but do not overlook your branding requirements. Many webmasters in the pursuit of a powerful URL, go for dense keyword URLs instead of engaging a healthy and balanced brand name. This is simply over-optimisation which can have negative impacts to both Google and users.

For example, “bestwebdesigncompany” is a smart choice is your company’s name is Best Web Design Company. But naming for keyword value despite of your brand name can be detrimental. Your brand name can also be your keyword. Combine your domain and URLs with both brand names and keywords for better results.

These are the most common 5 ways to avoid over-optimisation. If you wish to know more about optimisation then feel free to contact us at info@visnetwork.com.au or visit our website by clicking here.