Put your hands away from your keyboard: Signs you are over-optimizing your blog | Outpace SEO

Put your hands away from your keyboard: Signs you are over-optimizing your blog


Summit Ghimire October 22, 2021 - 4 minutes to read

Everyone is always looking for new ways to improve their blogs. One way is through keyword density, which is the percentage of times a keyword appears on a web page. If you have optimized your blog to have an appropriate keyword density, then this article is not for you! However, if you are noticing some signs that your blog may be over-optimized, keep reading because we have compiled a list of seven common symptoms to help identify when it might be time to stop optimizing.

You have started focusing on non-relevant keywords

The goal is not to rank for every keyword related to your industry. It’s to target specific keywords that you want to rank for. If you are getting caught up in over-optimizing, you have likely started targeting completely irrelevant keywords. This will only cause Google to bury your site further down the SERP with unnatural links.

You start using long-tail phrases excessively

When writing content for a post, focus on creating fresh and unique content instead of simply compiling lists or adding too many variations of key terms into one article. Using long-tail phrases often results from over-optimizing because they can be seen as spam by Google algorithms if used excessively throughout posts on your website. If so, this behavior needs to stop! Start thinking about ways to create innovative, original content rather than just finding more things related to what you already wrote about.

You notice a lot of unnatural links on your website

One of the biggest signs you might be over-optimizing is when you see too many backlinks to unrelated resources and posts with little value for readers. Google can quickly tell if all these inbound links are coming from blog spam or junk sites that have no relevance to your content topic. If this is happening, it’s time to take action because increased spam linking will hurt your rankings! Look at how you link out within articles and make sure they contain quality information related to what you’re writing about. Also, keep an eye out for any new comments posted since publishing a post because Spam Bookmarks often leave external trackbacks as part of their campaign.

You have started to repeat keywords excessively throughout the same post

If you notice that your keyword appears too many times within a paragraph or sentence, it might be time to cut back. Repeating words in this manner can quickly get flagged by Google algorithms for being spammy and unnatural. Instead of tracking how many times your keywords appear on one blog post, start writing naturally about what’s relevant with quality information instead! Repeat phrases only if they sound natural while still leaving readers with an informative article at the end of the day.

People are continuously complaining that your articles read like advertisements

One sign over-optimization has seeped into your content strategy is when people complain after reading published on your website – “This sounds a lot like an advertisement.” If you have been pushing your product or service through blog posts, readers will definitely notice! Google’s AI is getting better and better at identifying when websites are just trying to sell something. This means that if the content being pushed on your site does not offer real value for users, it might get buried by search engines in favor of sites that provide more information about their products.

You find yourself posting similar topics over and over again

Do you notice some significant similarities between new articles posted on your website? For example, do they all share common keywords within each post title? Or maybe there seems to be a trend with how many words appear before and after specific terms throughout the written text? There’s nothing wrong with writing about similar topics, but if you notice these things frequently happening on your site, it’s time to take action! This is because writing about the same issue over and over again can get very repetitive for readers. If so, mix up content titles with new ideas that are relevant while still engaging users in unique ways!

You have shifted focus from content creation to content optimization excessively

When was the last time you wrote original content from scratch that offered real value to users? If that time frame is more than a day, then it’s time to stop. Content creation is the best way to keep visitors engaged on your site, while constantly trying to optimize content can be a very risky strategy. If you are not adding new relevant information to blog posts, Google will suggest users search for similar topics elsewhere!

If one of these signs has happened to you recently or seems like it might occur soon – it’s probably because there is too much focus on optimization rather than actual writing. When this happens, website traffic starts dropping, and people lose interest in what was once an informative publication online. To avoid this type of situation happening on your site, stop constantly worrying about SEO factors while writing articles – instead, stay focused on providing real value to your site’s visitors.