Is Your Content Over Optimized?

For any business, organization or product looking to improve their online search rankings, Google search engine optimization (SEO) is the answer. As a result, SEO companies specialize in using keywords strategically placed in the content, so that Google’s algorithm can determine what the material is about. Thus, when internet users key in a particular phrase or keyword, the algorithm can detect the keywords from various online sources and provide the user with content that best matches the words/phrases searched in their results.

However, in a bid to get a better ranking on Google, businesses often over optimize their content by over saturating it with keywords. As a result, the content ends up being focused on over using keywords for ranking purposes as opposed to providing internet users with credible and useful information. Over the years, Google has caught on to this practice, and as a result, they have made some changes to their algorithm to ensure that when you search for a keyword on their engine, you do not just get keyword saturated content but something informative and useful to you. Below are some of the changes Google has recently implemented on their search engine, and how an SEO company can assist you with the new SEO content optimization regulations to get a good ranking.

Understand Latent Semantic Index (LSI)

Earlier on, Google ranked keyword stuffed content at the top of its indexes irrespective of how irrelevant the information was to an internet user. However, today, keyword stuffing your content will get you penalized by Google. As a result, Google introduced the Latent Semantic Indexing system to ensure that their algorithm doesn’t rank keyword stuffed content at the top of its search results.
Latent Semantic Indexing is a system that links one keyword to another relevant keyword by analyzing various keyword patterns that can get used together. For instance, if you search on Google ‘how to bake a chocolate cake?’ The algorithm recognizes the words ‘bake’ and ‘cake’ as keywords. Another person looking for the same information will search for ‘chocolate cake recipes’ while another will search ‘chocolate cake icing ingredients.’ Icing, recipes, and ingredients are keywords that are related to content on the baking of a chocolate cake, and thus they are considered as LSI keywords.

LSI keywords enable content to have a flow as well as provide additional keywords related to the main keyword of your content. Therefore, you do not have to over optimize your content with just one or a few keywords to get rankings as it will get you penalized. However, researching and placing relevant and useful LSI keywords can be a daunting task. As a result, most businesses prefer to employ the services of an SEO company to conduct research and to implement them into content seamlessly.

Pay Attention to Keyword Density

Keyword density refers to the percentage of your content that comprises of a particular keyword. The percentage gets calculated by dividing the number of keywords used by the total number of words in the content, and then multiplying the result by a hundred. To detect over-optimized content on their engine, Google utilizes keyword density to identify and punish keyword over stuffing. A high keyword density automatically gets classified as keyword spam and as such; the content doesn’t get selected for ranking in the search results. This is meant to prevent websites from over packing their material with numerous keywords to get listed, rather than provide useful content to their customers.

Keywords are still critical for rankings. However, keyword, including LSI keywords, should be used sparingly. According to our tests, the keyword density should always be below 5% with exact keywords under 2%. Additionally, to ensure that the density is sufficient enough to get detected by the LSI system for ranking, it is advisable to keep the density including LSIs at 2-4% max. With respect to this, to get favorably ranked, it is advisable to work with a professional SEO company. They have the expertise, tools, and experience to navigate Google’s algorithm so that you don’t get penalized for over optimization, and you still get good rankings.