How much should you optimize your web site?

How do you know if web site is optimized, over optimized or under optimized?

To begin with, in order to find out if your web site is under-optimized; just do a few basic checks like:

1. Title tag
2. Description tag and
3. Content of the web site

Analyzing the above features will give you an idea whether your website’s  on-page optimization is optimal. If any of the above features does not follow the SEO best practices, you may be missing out on the opportunity to get traffic to your site.  However, if you find that all of the above-mentioned features and more is present in your website, you may want to find out if it is overtly done. It is indeed not a good SEO practice to go overboard and over-optimize your website so much that it might seem like spamming.

For example, if you sell flowers online, your web site should be able to convey the message through the titles,descriptions, and the content of your web site. What you need to check is if these features are able to describe, and tell both the search engines and the visitors what to expect in the site.

If we do a search on your website with the keyword “flowers” and your web site glows like a Christmas tree, it means you are overdoing the keyword bit!

The content and the appearance of keywords have to appear natural, it can’t be forced. Do similar checks on the internal links, on the titles, of every page of your site. If you find that your website is indeed over-optimized, I recommend, you start working on every page and tone it down. It might give you a change to do a content re-evaluation, and that might do wonders for your web site.

If your website is optimized well, and is still not ranking, don’t lose heart. Keep working on your off-page optimization strategy. Remember slow and steady wins the race , and it still holds good.