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Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Optimize Your SEO Strategy, Don't Overdo It

On innumerable occasions, I have come across web pages and websites which have been Search Engine Optimized, beyond any comprehensible imagination. One look at the aforementioned, and you are left with no doubt whatsoever that the web pages and sites in question have been optimized for search engines, often in reckless manner, with no regard or relevance to the subject matter - or to the poor, hapless reader!

Even as a person with over five years of experience in the SEO domain, I fail to fathom the "over-SEO" of websites, which is despised upon by one and all. Search engines like Google consider such "over-SEO" as SEO-spam and altogether ban them from appearing in the search results that they display. In my opinion, that is the right step that they take. I am quite against "keyword-stuffing" that purports to unfairly inflate search rankings of companies, often in irrelevant contexts.

SEO in my opinion is about creativity, and not monotony. You don't apply the same "formula" across all the websites that you work on. Instead, you use your creativity to come out with ingenious techniques which are non-offensive in nature, yet bring about the necessary search engine optimization results. In fact, across my entire tenure in the SEO domain, I do not recall even a single instance wherein I have resorted to "keyword-stuffing" or any other SEO technique considered unacceptable. I never even felt the need to resort to any such unfair means. For me, each SEO assignment was a fresh challenge, that involved innovative, ingenious techniques which i applied and brought about complete satisfaction to my clients, without offending any of the search engines.

Techniques that I commonly observe and particularly despise are stuffing keywords across all possible locations - be it the Title tags, in the Meta description tags, the H1 or any of the H tags, as the first words on a particular page, and so on. I have even observed the keyword phrases being separately provided on the requisite pages, in different font sizes, colors and styles. How disdainful could things get?!

To clients hiring SEO "specialists" who resort to any of the above mentioned malpractices, I can only warn you about the negative affects of such actions; your site could face a permanent ban on the prominent search engines, which will obviously have an immensely painful impact on your business, particularly if you garner most (or all) of your clients vide your online presence. Therefore, go the creative, yet conventional way, and all will be well, while otherwise, things could only be immensely painful.

Looking at such SEO efforts, I often advise my clients to in fact forgo their SEO intentions altogether. Instead, focus on building up unique and authentic copy; in fact, even hiring the services of a professional copywriter for the same would be a good investment rather than a cost. You would have fresh and clean content, and then, using original and acceptable techniques, you could ensure that your website appears prominently across popular search engines.

So, keep in mind, Optimize, NOT Over-Optimize, else be prepared to face flak from all the popular search engines!

Vikram_Malik

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