Google's Over SEO penalty threat | Critically Examined

Hi Guys,

Google (Matt Cutts rather ) dropped another bomb after last weeks declaration about Turning off a method of link evaluation

Penalize websites for OVER SEO Optimization

Well, as usual, there was an uproar over the issue for a while. Now it is back to business as usual. I am noting down some great points from a discussion from SEO Chat. In a discussion with Matt Cutts ( head of Google anti web spam team) and Duane Forrester (Manager, Product Marketing, BING) Danny Sullivan of Searchengineland wriggled it out of Matt. Here is the Audio. I got it from SearchEngineLand. Thanks Barry.

You can go through the full audio it is very informative. But the BOMB we are talking about Matt Saying -

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 are left with the following questions.

What exactly demarcates Optimization from Over Optimization?
How can we stay clear of Over-Optimization?
What is the future of SEO?

What exactly demarcates Optimization from Over Optimization?

This is the most important question. To make it simple for you I will say anything that is NOT natural or anything that appears to screw the Search Engine algorithms are going to land you in trouble.

Take the case of keyword stuffing.

How many times do we come across search results like these? "Delhi tour package, Tour package delhi, New Delhi India tour package, Cheap best fantastic exotic Delhi India tourism" If Google marks such practices as over optimization, then so be it. I would love to see such sites die. Kick them out of the SERPs all toge

Do you think it is natural that 100s or may be 1000’s of backlinks materialized to your site in a week?
Do you think it is natural when all the links carry the same anchor text?
What sense does it make when most of the links point to the sales page with almost no unique information?
Why would a dozen blogs from the same IP link to your website? Are they a part of a link scam? Possible is it not?
How is it that almost all links to your website are from Social Bookmarks? If you are so popular why dont people mention them anywhere?
Is anyone talking about you on Social Media? Why not?

User behavior

Search Engines have evolved drastically over the last few years. Unfortunately most of the self proclaimed SEO experts live 10 years behind their times.

One of the simple things that some people do not understand is User Behavior and its effect on SERP rankings for a website. This is today a strong signal that tells the search engines if a particular result is worthy of its current rank. One such factor is Bounce Rate.

Google and Bing need not have access to your analytic software to calculate your bounce rate. For instance if the User clicks your search result, goes to your website, finds it unusable or not what he was looking for, and returns to the search engine - its a Bounce. (there are exceptions though) Other things that are important in User behavior is Time spent on site, deep navigation etc.

One thing to remember is what Google keeps saying - Google Does NOT hate SEO. In fact SEO is that what tells Google what a page is about. But spamming the web to screw their algorithm is what Google cannot digest easily and that is why they are considering penalizing such spammers.

I have always believed that factors that are not directly under our control should not result in a penalty against us.

So, I still maintain that a link profile, how ever shaddy should not effect a penalty. It should rightly be devalued. Now, we must see DEVALUATION and PENALTY in different lights.

While devaluation means that you still rank for whatever is rightly yours, a penalty means that you would rank further below for whatever is rightly yours because you crossed a line somewhere

In no circumstance Google/Bing will want to leave a system open that will allow us to build tons of crap links to new websites that have really great content and blast them out of the competition.