Tips about Reacting to Google’s Over-optimization Filter

Matt Cutts, head of Google’s anti-spam team, announced that Google is working on a penalty for over-optimized websites last week. What does this announcement mean to your website and how should you react to it?

Below is what Matt Cutts said in detail:

"We don’t normally pre-announce changes but there is something we are working in the last few months and hope to release it in the next months or few weeks. We are trying to level the playing field a bit.

We are trying to make GoogleBot smarter, make our relevance better, and we are also looking for those who abuse it, like too many keywords on a page, or exchange way too many links or go well beyond what you normally expect. We have several engineers on my team working on this right now."

Does this mean that you shouldn’t optimize your web pages anymore?

Actually the announcement is to aim at people who are trying to push the limits too far. It is still perfectly okay to add your keywords on your web pages and it is also perfectly okay to exchange links with other websites.

All of these above methods will have a positive influence on the Google rankings of your website. When these elements are overused, the problem starts. For example, it is likely that the following search engine optimization (SEO) methods will get your website in trouble:

²  Tools that help you automatically create fake forum accounts and comments with a link to your website;

²  Tools that help you automatically create keyword rich web pages for you on your website;

²  Automated link exchange networks that help you add links to hundreds on other websites;

²  Participating in paid link schemes;

How to avoid getting your website in trouble?

1. Fully automated solutions always mean spam when it comes to SEO;
2. Don’t panic and create a symbiotic relationship with search engines;
3. Secure your Google rankings by using white-hat SEO tools;

That’s all! Hope it helps!