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A perfect dozen warm, triple chocolate peanut-butter fudge brownies sit in front of you, beckoning. You know you should eat just one, but it’s so tempting to indulge in a little extra, right?

Wrong. No brownie tastes quite as scrumptious as that first one, and your waistline will notice.

It is similar for search marketing.
Search engine “spiders” crawl a site and rank it for keyword phrases. Common, tried-and-true SEO techniques include adding search engine optimized content to your site, creating effective, unique meta tags, and reaching out to quality sites and propelling them to link to your site from theirs. But what happens when you do all of the above, and your site drops in the rankings?! Your site may very well be suffering from Search Engine Over-Optimization.

Post the following phrase on your computer: No more over-optimizing your SEO campaign! Below are ways
to ensure your site meets SEO expectations and doesn’t suffer from search engine indigestion.

Keyword Stuffing

No, keyword stuffing is not Mom’s special dish at Thanksgiving– nor is it an ingredient to SEO success. Ever visit a site and notice a pile of keyword phrases listed on the page? Doesn’t exactly make you want to stay on that page too long, right? It’s the same way for search engine spiders - it causes them to ask, “Hey, is this site owner trying to deceive me?”

The penalty comes when search engine spiders drop you in the rankings or even remove you altogether. Some operators make keywords the same color as the background so visitors won’t see them. Search engines will see them and penalize you.

Meta Tags Madness

Meta tags are no longer the magic solution. They’re not as widely recognized as they once were by search engines; however optimizing them correctly can help your SEO campaign. Before you simply add 50 meta keywords to your homepage, read this:

• Meta-Title: The meta-title is the copy in the blue bar at the top of your Internet browser. This is one of the first parts of your site search engine spiders see, so be sure a competitive keyword phrase is included in it. Be brief - 60-120 characters (including spaces) is sufficient.

• Meta-Keywords: Meta-keywords tell a search engine the products/services on a page. Include only keywords related to the specific page you’re working on and cap it at five! Your homepage can have about 10.

• Meta-Description: Many search engines use a site’s Meta-description as the short summary under a site’s search result listing on a search engine results page. Like the other meta fields, be specific with each section page. Write two to three sentences about page content and include the keyword phrase you’re optimizing for two times throughout the Meta-description.

Oodles of Content

Search engine optimized content is integral to a successful SEO campaign. But there is such a thing as too much content.

Review your homepage and section pages - are they so text-heavy that it takes a ton of scrolling just to find your products?

Your homepage and section page should contain about two paragraphs of content with your keyword phrase included about three times. Create a “Resources” or “Articles” section on your site and include full SEO-friendly content pages. Write informative articles on topics related to your industry that your site visitors will actually want to read. Practice moderation - if you find yourself with hundreds of articles, it’s time to put down the keyboard….

Link Building = Partnership Building

If you’re interested in SEO, you know the importance of links. As search engines get smarter, they’re taking more into account than just the number of links pointing to your site. Rather than beg for more links, develop a list of 20 sites that would make great partners. Review their traffic and how respected they are in their industry. Contact the site owner directly (yes! Use the phone!) and outline a mutually beneficial plan. These days it’s the quality of the sites linking to you, not the quantity!

A Skim SEO Campaign,
No Whip, Thanks

SEO is a long term strategy, and your rankings will not shoot up in the results overnight. Stick to our SEO tips and resist the urge to over-indulge. Now go eat one of those triple-chocolate peanut-butter fudge brownies. You’ve earned it.

Solid Cactus, Inc. has designed or redesigned more than 3,000 e-commerce sites. Solid Cactus is an Inc. 500 company and was named one of the "Best Places to Work in Pennsylvania" in 2006 and 2007.

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