Over Optimization - Where is the limit?
-
Hi All,
Lately its been discussed a lot about the various penalties and the one that is least clear to me is over optimization.
I'm currently dealing with my site's sub-folders naming.
My site sells computers yet the domain name has nothing to do with computers.
The question is should I put computers in every folder name?
Examples:
domain.com/surveys/xxx VS domain.com/computer-surveys/xxx
domain.com/Questions/xxx VS domain.com/Computers-Questions/xxx
and
domain.com/Education/xxx VS domain.com/computers-education/xxx
Where is the limit?
-
Agreed. My domain name is our brand name and doesn't touch on our products however that doesn't hurt us. Over optimization is usually just trying too hard to force keywords in where they aren't needed; like name dropping.
-
I think either of those options is just fine.
URLs on the left are short and sweet. URLs on the right are a bit more descriptive.
I would draw the line at this question: Are you doing multiple things only for the search engines and not for the users?
My two biggest tips would be to 1) Write naturally (page titles, copy) and 2) Link naturally (descriptive, not over anchor texty)
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Help with structure for optimizing Photography Website SEO
Hey guys , I am building a photography website and currently I have it setup the following way for my image galleries : https://ricfrancophotography.com/portfolio/norway-landscape-photography/#!gallery6618-6577 This provides me with an individual link for each of the images in my photography gallery but as a gallery these have obviously no content and I figured the best way would be to add the images I want to work my SEO for to individual blog posts . So here is what I did so far : - Added a link to the caption of each image inside the lightbox that is linking to the individual blog post - In order to not break the navigation I made the post with the content for each image open in a modal popup (it changes the link in the top bar but once closed it goes back to the gallery) . - I made the image inside the post link back to the fullsize image in the lightbox gallery when clicked instead of linking to the .jpg in wp-content/uploads. Now, I have some questions regarding whether this is a good practice in terms of SEO and if the fact of having duplicate images or this structure is going to hurt my SEO any way . Although both images are in different urls they ultimately link to each other this way : Blog Image --> Gallery Image url --> wp-content/uploads/file.jpg Is there a better approach for this ? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ricfranco0 -
Site-wide links with optimized anchor words?
Hi Moz community, I work at a web design company. I found my competitors have a lot of site-wide backlinks from their clients with optimized anchor text "affordable web design by XXX". Some of the clients' website are not even relevant to web design or design industry. I am sure those are dofollow links. Although I heard a lot of sayings that site-wide backlinks look unnatural and spammy, why the top ranking guys are still using this way to acquire backlinks? Does Google really actually say no to this? Thanks for any help and explanation. Best, Raymond
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Raymondlee0 -
Optimal image location in news stories?
We recently watched a video where a Google News developer advocated displaying large images near the top of articles. As a matter of practice, we tend to follow the below formats instead. Are we shooting ourselves in the foot? Use a gallery at the top: http://www.whatsonstage.com/west-end-theatre/news/07-2014/great-britain-billie-piper-west-end_34919.html Use a medium size square image on the right side: http://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/07-2014/arts-council-funding-npo-orange-tree_34910.html Use a large image with a caption at the top: http://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/07-2014/meera-syal-national-theatre_34913.html Also, do elements like a 'Buy ticket' console in the middle of article pages hurt us?: http://screencast.com/t/rqqMk2dATfmE
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TheaterMania0 -
Optimize root domain or a page in a sub directory?
Hi My root domain is already optimized for keywords, i would say branded keywords, which i do not really need, as the traffic from these does not give me any revenue ( mostly consists of our employees/returning visitors). Now i have run on page optimization for set of keywords for root domain which i like and got good grades (hurray!). But yet my website does not show up on search engines for those keywords. I have got pretty good link building done to my root domain but this is not done for all keywords (but done for branded keywords). It just happened, please do not ask why. So i decided to optimize inside pages in sub directory with new set of keywords i like. Starting with link building, giving anchor text on various other website linking to this particular page. These pages are not ranked in top 50 in google. Is that a good practice? or I would not need those branded keywords, hence should I re-optimize my root domain to suite my new keywords by giving less preference to branded keywords? Is this a good practice?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MiddleEastSeo0 -
Do you use a different tactic to optimize for Bing?
Google is king, but it seems as though there is a significant source of traffic and revenue from Bing. What is the preferred strategy? Optimize for Google and hope it filters to Bing? An obvious concern would be that if we change tactics to please Bing, we could stand to lose our rankings with Google. Any opinions/thoughts/feedback/suggestions would be appreciated.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | NaHoku0 -
Image optimization for e-commerce
Regarding image optimization for an ecommerce site.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | triplelootz
In your "category" pages you list your products with a small thumbnails / miniature image. When the user clicks on the product name or on the thumnails, he lands on the product page with the real size product image. How do you optimize the thumbnail image? Do you use a different ALT? Is Google smart enough to index the real size image? On one hand the image located on the "product" page has lot more content around, is bigger & more interesting for both the user and Google. On the other hand the "category" page has more autority ( links) than the product page... To reformulate my questions: Do you think ALT tag is important for your thumbnail image on your category pages. Do you write different ALT tag for your thumbnail image ( on your category pages) & and your real size image (on your product page)? Which ALT tag / image do you think is the most interesting for Google? What do you think? Cheers, Ludo0 -
Lots of optimized content but crappy rankings
Hi, I write content for the site http://www.healthchoices.ca. We were hit by Panda (a different issue that is resolved now) but even before that, I'd write an entire library of good content. An example: the plant sterols library. Here's an article as an example: http://www.healthchoices.ca/article/where-are-plant-sterols-phytosterols-found There are about eight on average in each medical library, and we cover topics from acne to sexual health. The other half of the business is a directory. We have thousands of local health are providers, a basic version with just an address, and a longer version where we optimize the text. Here's an example: http://www.healthchoices.ca/profile/ct-mri-scans/canada-diagnostic-centres We come up buried on the third page, far after directories with zero content or crappy content. What am I missing? I am getting very frustrated as I've been writing this stuff for a long time and nothing seems to come of it. Thanks so much, Erin
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | erinhealthchoices0 -
What should my optimal anchor text look like, given cannibalization risk?
We have a content page with the explicit goal of ranking highly for "raised garden beds". We drive traffic from this page to our various types of raised garden beds in our store. The "FarmsteadRaised Garden Bed" is one such product. http://eartheasy.com/grow_raised_beds.htm Should we avoid using "raised garden beds" in the anchor text of the internal links pointing to the products in our store because of cannibalization? We recently changed the anchor text of the internal links to have keywords instead of just "click here" or "more info" - was this a good idea? What should our optimal anchor text look like?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | aran0880