Search engine optimization is important because:
- Most people consider what is on the first page of Google’s results list to be better than what is on other pages, although this is not always true.
- The higher the rank, the higher the chances that people will click on your website or blog.
- Most web users are usually too lazy to search for results outside the first page of the results list.
- With a high page rank, you will attract quality links.
All these factors will help you get more hits and consequently, you will make more money.
In recent years, Google has changed its algorithms to keep off people who over-optimize to get a higher ranking.
How do you know you have been penalized?
Google can penalize you for a single page or it can penalize your whole website. The plan of action for the two penalties is different.
1) If your rank drops on almost all your keywords but you have a page that is still ranked, then Google is penalizing your pages.
2) If you search for your website with keywords or key phrases that only your website has and you are still ranking low, this is an indication that Google has penalized the complete site.
How Google is Penalizing People for Over-Optimization
Google has several penalty filters and it filters out over-optimized websites or pages every 2 to 3 weeks. The more you have over-optimized, the more the ‘penalty points’ you will get and the lower you will rank.
Some search engine optimization techniques will get your ranking dropped by Google. You should therefore avoid techniques such as putting keywords in META tags, img titles, H1 tags, and link anchor text.
Google penalizes you slowly, with a drop of 5 to 10 spots, then about 30 spot, and then about 100 spots.
