Over Optimization Penalty – Google’s Next Target

Over Optimization Penalty – Word on the street is that after Googles destruction of most private blog networks the death ray  located at Google headquarters in Mountain View California is taking aim at over optimization!
SEO providers are worried that this could be another nail in the coffin for their industry, in actuality all this means is that Seo providers have to be a little smarter in the ways that they approach optimization. Let's look at some of the aspects that may catch you off guard and how you can deal with them.

Over Optimization Penalty Insights

Anchor Text and backlinks
One of the main misconceptions is the anchor text used in backlinks. Most people think that the anchor text should match the keywords which they are targeting, so for example: if your keyword is best Seo, then all your backlinks should contain the anchor text best Seo? This is not the right way of going about it. Natural back linking happens when people link back to a article, post or information that they found helpful, not all these people are going to use the same text when they create the back link, so Google looks for diversity  when it comes to backlinks.

Backlink anchor text should roughly be:

• 20% primary keyword
• 45% related keywords
• 35% raw link

So when you are creating backlinks you should remember that Google's over optimization update means that it is actively looking for the Seo that you perform, you should try to make your Seo look more natural.

Backlink Placement to Avoid Over Optimization Penalty

Now that we have looked at how to deal with backlinks, let's talk about where put them.
When looking at backlinks you can divide them into four categories:

1. 10% primary authority backlinks
2. 10% high end contextual backlinks
3. 30% mixed back linking
4. 50% web 2.0

Primary backlinks:
Primary backings are your main backlinks that come from authority sites. These links are often what decides we're your website ends up in the rankings, while they only make up 10% they probably count for about 80%.

High end contextual backlinks:
These backlinks are not as well located as your primary backings but they still take up a lot of time and effort. High end contextual backlinks may consist of comments, forum posts and profiles and social bookmarks. These backlinks should have unique contextual content posted with them, this gives them more authority than the usual bulk content.

Mixed back linking:
Mixed backlinks are considered to be more of your average web 2.0, low grade bookmarking and high OBL blogs.

Web 2.0 backlinks:
If you think about the Internet and how it has evolved, it has shifted from webmasters and editors pushing the content and become more of a two-way conversation between more than one party.
If people are talking about your business, website or blog it is more than likely that this is happening on social media, social bookmarking and web 2.0 properties. While these are probably still bulk backlinks make sure you make the effort to create quality content instead of farming it out to sub-par article writing chop shops. Although it is agreed that keywords are no longer as important as they once were useful have to ensure that you have a decent on page optimization, and do a because Google does have the ability to detect if you are trying to game the system.

Web 2.0 Sites

• PR9
• http://wordpress.com
• PR8
• http://squidoo.com
• http://weebly.com
• http://livejournal.com
• http://bravenet.com
• PR7
• http://blogger.com
• http://blogsome.com
• http://www.wetpaint.com
• http://www.wikispaces.com
• http://www.xanga.com
• http://www.tripod.lycos.com
• http://tumblr.com
• http://quizilla.teennick.com
• http://viviti.com
• http://webs.com
• http://knol.google.com
• http://friendster.com
• PR 6
• http://bigadda.com
• http://blog.co.uk
• http://blog.com
• http://www.zimbio.com
• http://gather.com
• http://diaryland.com
• http://edublogs.org
• http://opendiary.com
• http://sosblog.com
• PR5
• http://20six.co.uk
• http://blog.ca
• http://hubpages.com
• http://blurty.com
• http://upsaid.com
• http://tabulas.com
• http://tblog.com
• http://terapad.com
• http://shoutpost.com
• http://thoughts.com
• http://blogskinny.com
• http://free-conversant.com
• http://freeflux.net
• PR4
• http://blogeasy.com
• http://blogstream.com
• http://blogstudio.com
• http://blogtext.org
• http://insanejournal.com
• http://journalfen.net
• http://journalhub.com
• http://bloxster.net
• http://bloghi.com
• http://mynewblog.com
• http://netcipia.com
• http://wikyblog.com
• http://blogigo.com
• http://freeblogit.com
• PR3
• http://blogono.com
• http://blogr.com

Social bookmarking sites

• Twiiter.com
• Digg.com
• Stumbleupon.com
• Reddit.com
• Pinterest.com
• BuzzFeed.com
• Del.icio.us
• tweetmeme.com
• fark.com
• slashdot.com
• friendfeed.com
• clipmarks.com
• newsvine.com
• diigo.com
• Dzone.com
• Chime.in
• a1-webmarks.com
• agroots.com
• bibsonomy.org
• blinklist.com
• Bookmax.net
• Cloudytags.com
• corank.com
• folkd
• gather.com
• givealink.org
• icio.de (german)
• memotoo.com
• Mister-Wong.com (german)
• multiply.com
• Plurk.com
• Rambhai.com (India)
• SocialAdr
• TechCrsp.com
• Thoof.com
• Totalpad.com

Over Optimization Penalty and Timing

In the past it may have been about deliver had the most backlinks, but times are changing, you have to slow down your Seo efforts I think the days of blasting out thousands of links or even 1000 links a day are behind us, this kind of activity is going to raise a red flag with Google for sure. When you analyze most of the authority sites you will notice that they have a constant amount of small back link growth which may be coupled with small bursts of additional linking.

The exception to this may be sites or content that goes viral, this could lead to thousands or even millions of visitors within the smalltime and may result in a huge number of back linking in a short period of time. Some of you may look at these numbers and think that they are either too high or too low, but these examples really depend on your skill level and the site you are building backlinks to. But at the end of the day the most important thing to remember is that the quality of the link by far outweighs the quantity.

Over Optimization vs Reading Level

It may come as a prize to many but Google is actively aware of the quality of your site content by applying the Flesch Kincaid reading level analysis. After Google acquired Metaweb in 2010, they began expanding further into "semantic search" to develop the idea and understand the relation between user needs and webpage quality. This is proven by Google's obsession with content quality above all else, this maybe explains why Giants such as Wikipedia are able to occupy the top positions on the SERP's.

Basically the way the Flesch–Kincaid system is scored is:

• 90.0–100.0 easily understood by an average 11-year-old student
• 60.0–70.0 easily understood by 13- to 15-year-old students
• 0.0–30.0 best understood by university graduates

The lower the score the more difficult the read. In general it's best to aim for something between 25 – 40, and there are many online tools that will help you figure out the Flesch-Kincaid score of your page.

Hopefully you have a better understanding about the over optimization penalty and why Google has set its sights on this practice, as Seo analysts and practitioners we have no choice but to adapt to Google's constant changes if we want to stay in the game