Over-Optimization Inquiry
-
There has been mixed opinions regarding the best practices in using alt tags/image titles. I am looking to avoid over optimization techniques that are potentially hurting my site.
Right now I have a website in the crafts/DIY niche and every one of the page titles on the site are long tail keywords. Every page title is the main targeted keyword and for every one of those, that keyword is the image alt tags/image title.
I have been told that the alt tag/image title for a post should NOT be the keyword your going after so what I'm looking for here is the best practice in dealing with these alt attributes.
Should I change it to something other than the ranking keyword?
Or not putting anything at all be a better approach? If I do this, will I lose rankings? Would like to know all the repercussions of these actions.
I need to know what is the best approach here in avoiding over optimization penalties. Any insight or recommendations would be greatly appreciated here!
-
Hi,
The question you should really be asking yourself is if the keywords in the image alt text are an accurate description of the image. The goal should be to get the image to rank for relevant queries in image results or universal results.
If you're simply targeting the same keywords in the title and image alt text, but it's completely relevant, then I wouldn't worry about it so much. Google's over-optimization penalty (I assume you're referring to Penguin) usually affects sites with much more nefarious spam techniques than what you've described. Things like keyword stuffing accompanied by a ton of keyword-rich links to the page from low quality sites.
If you want to check to see how the algorithm changes affect your site, you could look at the Penguin update dates on Moz's algorithm change page and compare it to your site traffic. If you've been hit by Penguin, you'll likely see a steep drop in traffic after one of the algorithm change dates.
-Trung
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Google Answer Box Optimization?
Anyone have any luck in optimizing your site to show up in the Google Answer Boxes that popup for informational queries? (for example: "what is seo?") I've read many of the articles that have been written on the subject, and have been able to show up for many queries by a) ranking high organically, b) placing the question at the top of the page, and then answering it succinctly. However, for one term a competitor continues to show up in the answer box instead of us, despite their site ranking lower organically in the search results. Anyone have any experience/advice for replacing a competitor in the Answer Box? Thanks!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | TakeshiYoung2 -
How would you optimize a new site?
Hi guys, im here to ask based on your personal opinion. We know in order to rank in SEO for a site is to make authority contents that interest people. But what would you do to increase your ranking of your site or maybe a blog post? leaving your link on blogs comment seem dangerous, nowadays. Is social media the only way to go? Trying to get people to write about you? what else can be done?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | andzon0 -
Inbound Links Inquiry for a New Site
For a site that is only one to two months old, what is considered a natural amount of inbound links if you're site offers very valuable information, and you have done a marketing push to get the word out about your blog? Even if you are receiving backlinks from authority websites with high DA, does Google get suspicious if there are too many inbound links during the first few months of a sites existence? I know there are some sites that blow up very fast and receive thousands of backlinks very quickly, so I'm curious to know if Google puts these kind of sites on a watchlist or something of that nature. Or is this simply a good problem to have?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | WebServiceConsulting.com0 -
Content optimized for old keywords and G Updates
Hi, We've got some old content, about 50 pages worth in an Ecommerce site, that is optimized for keywords that aren't the subject of the page - these keywords occur about 8 times (2 keywords per page) in the old content. We are going through these 50 pages and changing the title, H1, and meta description tag to match the exact subject of the page - so that we will increase in rankings again - the updates have been lowering our rankings. Do we need to completely rewrite the content for these 50 pages, or can we just sprinkle it with any needed additions of the one keyword that is the subject of the page? The reason I'm asking is that our rankings keep dropping and these 50 pages seem to be part of the problem. We're in the process of updating these 50 pages Thanks.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | BobGW0 -
How do you optimize a page with Syndicated Content?
Content is syndicated legally (licensed). My questions are: What is the best way to approach this situation? Is there any a change to compete with the original site/page for the same keywords? Is it okay to do so? Will there be any negative SEO impact on my site?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | StickyRiceSEO0 -
Content box (on page content) and titles Google over-optimization penalty?
We have a content box at the bottom of our website with a scroll bar and have posted a fair bit of content into this area (too much for on page) granted it is a combination of SEO content (with links to our pages) and informative but with the over optimization penalty coming around I am a little scared if this will result in a problem for us. I am thinking of adopting the process of this website HERE with the content behind a more information button that drops down, would this be better as it could be much more organised and we will be swopping out to more helpful information than the current 50/50 (SEO – helpful content) or will it be viewed the same and we might as well leave it as is and lower the amount of repetition and links in the content. Also we sell printed goods so our titles may be a bit over the top but they are bring us a lot of converting traffic but again I am worried about the new Google release this is an example of a typical title (only an example not our product page) Banner Printing | PVC Banners | Outdoor Banners | Backdrops | Vinyl Banners | Banner Signs Thank you for any help with these matters.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | BobAnderson0 -
How to improve on page Optimization ?
How to Optimize our website in terms of onpage optimisation, how relavent the onpage should be to that of the search engine. will onpage optimisatrion will help us to rank better in organic search results.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | AkshayaPatra0