She continues, “Google’s much discussed over-optimization penalty turned out to be a moderate evolutionary step in Google’s site quality crusade. Launched April 24, Google wrote in a blog post of its update, “The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating Google’s quality guidelines. This algorithm represents another step in our efforts to reduce webspam and promote high quality content.”

According to the Google blog post, an estimated 3.1 percent of U.S. search results will be affected by the algorithm update, while sites in countries like Poland that are more prone to produce webspam could see as high as 5 percent change in rankings. The algorithm will more aggressively penalize webspam tactics like keyword stuffing and irrelevant linking from sites that “spin” content with barely readable content. “Spinning” refers to the practice of scraping content from other sites and then manually or mechanically rearranging the words to create a “new” piece of content.

Is All SEO Webspam?

In its announcement, Google’s head webspam cop Matt Cutts also addressed the difference between search engine optimization and webspam. The first three paragraphs of the announcement details the difference between ethical or “white hat” SEO practices and manipulative “black hat” webspam under the guise of SEO. As an ethical SEO practitioner, I appreciate the vote of confidence for the SEO industry, but Google’s Cutts must really have felt under fire after his over-optimization comments last month to write such a missive. Cutts’ best advice is to focus on creating “amazing, compelling web sites.” That, to be sure, is not a newsflash to most ecommerce brands.

Read the full article…

An industry of online fixers is sprouting to defend clients against damaging information on the Web. With potential customers increasingly heading online to research products and services, bad reviews or complaints that turn up in a search can mean lost business. Reputation management services promise to highlight positive pages and bury offending sites deep in search results.

Most reputation services work by tracking what’s written about a client on the Web, then doing search engine optimization (BusinessWeek.com, 9/10/07), promoting positive pages, and creating other sites that will push damaging references off the first pages of search results. The services are pitched as another tool companies can use in their PR and marketing efforts.

But do these services work? Are they actually resolving misinformation, or simply covering up what’s out there so that it can’t be found?  For the fees some of these companies charge, you should be able to get what you need.  Several companies said the typical cost for a small business client starts at $1,000 a month. More extensive services marketed to large corporations run into the tens of thousands of dollars.

A new trade association, the Online Reputation Management Assn. is being formed to certify members and promote best practices, because no clear standards exist for what is and is not acceptable.  One thing is becoming clear, and that is you cannot simply hire a company to handle this activity and forget about it.  You need to be invovled in the process all the way.

Here’s a list to start you on the path:

Comparison of the Top Ten Firms:

Reputation Management Consultants
Reputation.com
My Reputation Manager

What about your “personal” reputation?

When you share a name with a drug dealer, have an embarrassing photo showing up on Google, or just don’t have the most ideal search results when somebody looks up your name, it can be hard to get a job. Lifehacker.com has published articles on how you can better-manage your online reputation, but BrandYourself is a web app that’ll help you through the process so you don’t have to spend hours doing it all by yourself.

Once you sign up, you have to tell BrandYourself what you think of your current search results. It’ll pull up them up for you and you can mark them as positive, negative, or about someone who isn’t you. When you’re done, you’ll get a search result grade and tips on how to improve your results. Next you’ll create a profile that’ll be optimized to sit at the top of your search results.

Finally, you can submit positive links about yourself to help push them to the top of your results. You get three links for free. The premium service costs $10/month or $80/year (with other price points in between) and will allow you to submit an unlimited number of links. The service will also provide you with alerts about good and bad things happening with your search results so you can act accordingly. It’s a really nice way to stay on top of the way search engines see you.

Original review on Lifehacker.com

by Bill Mickey, Foliomag.com

The IAB released its Internet Advertising Revenue Report yesterday, which details full-year 2011 results and was conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers. As it has for the last ten years, except for a slight dip in 2009, annual revenue easily beat the previous year—hitting $31.7 billion in 2011, a 22 percent increase over 2010 and an all-time high.

In the last decade, revenues have shot up $25.7 billion at 20.3 percent CAGR. Even so, mobile got recognition as a format that came into its own in 2011, jumping 149 percent to $1.6 billion for the year. 2011 also marked the first year in the report that mobile was broken out as a standalone format. Its revenue increase drove 3.7 percent of the overall 22 percent advertising growth for the year.

While mobile’s 5 percent slice of the full-year digital advertising pie is a tiny one, it’s passed email (1 percent), sponsorship (4 percent) and rich media (4 percent) in share of revenues. Mobile is now tied with lead generation.

It’s likely been singled out due to its big jump over 2010′s $641 million, by far the fastest growing segment. Plus, the platform has traditionally been bemoaned as one that’s not been capitalized on nearly enough.

Nevertheless, digital video (6 percent)  and classifieds (8 percent) are still slightly ahead, as are display and banner advertising which command the highest share of revenues at 22 percent and 47 percent respectively.

For the full report, click here.

The original article is here.

The following list of Twitter chats for small businesses was compiled bu Sig Ueland of Practical eCommerce. To join the conversation, search the hashtag at Twitter during the chat’s scheduled time. You can also use a Twitter-client such as TweetChat or TweetDeck.

Chats for Small Businesses

#bizforum.

Each Wednesday #bizforum provides a place where people with varying points of view on trending business-related topics can present those views and debate the pros and cons with other business leaders. Time: Wednesdays at 8 p.m. Eastern U.S. Time.

#Blogchat.

Founded by @MackCollier, #Blogchat is a weekly discussion to help you improve your blogging results. Co-hosts frequently join the conversation. The popular chat also streams at live events. Time: Sundays at 8 p.m. Central U.S. Time.

#BrandChat.

#BrandChat focuses on brand development. Brand themes for each week explore big businesses, non-profits, small businesses, personal brands, and general information and open-chats. Time: Wednesdays at 8 a.m. Pacific U.S. Time.

#CustServ.

Hosted by @MarshaCollier and @JeffreyJKingman, #CustServ is a weekly discussion on customer service for all organizations, large or small. Time: Tuesdays at 9:00 p.m. Eastern U.S. Time.

#CXO.

#CXO is a weekly discussion on customer experience optimization for professionals and enthusiasts. Time: Mondays at 12 p.m. Eastern U.S. Time.

#DIYchat.

The #DIYchat is a discussion for those with do-it-yourself businesses. Entrepreneurs and creative visionaries have no shortage of ideas, but they often need help creating a master plan for accomplishing their biggest goals. Time: First Thursday of the month, 7 to 9 p.m. Eastern U.S. Time.

#HBRchat.

Hosted by Harvard Business Review, #HBRchat presents three questions related to a topic raised in a recent article, blog post or other type of content. HBRchat participants are invited to share their thoughts, ideas and opinions. Time: Thursdays at 1:00 p.m. Eastern U.S. Time.

#InfluenceChat.

Hosted by Alan Berkson, #InfluenceChat discusses influence and related issues. The InfluenceChat blog posts a variety of related articles, as well as chat tweets and topics. Time: Tuesdays at 12 p.m. Eastern U.S. Time.

#Innochat.

Each Thursday, #Innochat presents a lively, informative and inspiring discussion on innovation. Guest moderators discuss innovations in product development, brand management, and more. Time: Thursdays at 12:00 p.m. Eastern U.S. Time.

#KloutChat.

Klout, the company that measures your influence, now hosts #KloutChat. The chat is an ongoing conversation about influence measurement and social impact. Time: First Wednesday of every month at 6 p.m. Eastern U.S. Time.

#Legaltweetmeet.

If you are a small business owner, chances are you have legal questions. #Legaltweetmeet is a chat that allows business owners and the general public to take advantage of free business and legal advice from Kendrick Law Practice LLC. Time: Thursdays at 8 p.m. Eastern U.S. Time.

#LinkedInChat.

Every Tuesday night, #LinkedInChat explores way to utilize and leverage your LinkedIn business network. The chat sessions are for all types of LinkedIn users, from brand developers to business lead hunters. Time: Tuesdays at 8 p.m. Eastern U.S. Time.

#MMchat.

Hosted by @JeffAshcroft, Marketer Monday chat, #MMchat, features a special guest expert every week, as it explores marketing and social media marketing. Time: Mondays at 8:00 p.m. Eastern U.S. Time.

#nfiblive.

Hosted by @NFIB, an association of small businesses, #nfiblive is a webinar on small business topics, from legal and tax advice to operations information, to help you run your business better. Time: Second and fourth Wednesday of the month at 12:00 p.m. Eastern U.S. Time.

#ProdChat.

Productivity Chat, #ProdChat, is an hour-long discussion for productivity enthusiasts and those looking to improve their personal productivity, share, and connect with one another. Time: Second and fourth Wednesday of the month at 1:00 p.m. Eastern U.S. Time.

#SmallBizChat.

The focus of #SmallBizChat is to end small business failure by helping business owners succeed as they start and grow their small businesses. It focuses on emerging entrepreneurs who are less than five years in business. Time: Wednesdays at 8 p.m. Eastern U.S. Time.

#smbiz.

Each Tuesday night #smbiz is an open chat where small businesses get answers from expert panel members and other small business owners. Meet virtually and help each other out with issues you face on a daily basis. Time: Tuesdays at 8 p.m. Eastern U.S. Time.

#SMChat.

Wednesday afternoons, #SMCHAT explores topics on the evolution of social media. Show up with your ideas, and jump into the question-and-answer session. Users can also suggest weekly chat topics on the chat’s blog. Time: Wednesdays at 1 p.m. Eastern U.S. Time.

by Geoffrey James, Inc.com

A few years back, I interviewed some of the most successful CEOs in the world in order to discover their management secrets. I learned that the “best of the best” tend to share the following eight core beliefs.

1. Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield.

Average bosses see business as a conflict between companies, departments and groups. They build huge armies of “troops” to order about, demonize competitors as “enemies,” and treat customers as “territory” to be conquered.

Extraordinary bosses see business as a symbiosis where the most diverse firm is most likely to survive and thrive. They naturally create teams that adapt easily to new markets and can quickly form partnerships with other companies, customers … and even competitors.

2. A company is a community, not a machine.

Average bosses consider their company to be a machine with employees as cogs. They create rigid structures with rigid rules and then try to maintain control by “pulling levers” and “steering the ship.”

Extraordinary bosses see their company as a collection of individual hopes and dreams, all connected to a higher purpose. They inspire employees to dedicate themselves to the success of their peers and therefore to the community–and company–at large.

3. Management is service, not control.

Average bosses want employees to do exactly what they’re told. They’re hyper-aware of anything that smacks of insubordination and create environments where individual initiative is squelched by the “wait and see what the boss says” mentality.

Extraordinary bosses set a general direction and then commit themselves to obtaining the resources that their employees need to get the job done. They push decision making downward, allowing teams form their own rules and intervening only in emergencies.

4. My employees are my peers, not my children.

Average bosses see employees as inferior, immature beings who simply can’t be trusted if not overseen by a patriarchal management. Employees take their cues from this attitude, expend energy on looking busy and covering their behinds.

Extraordinary bosses treat every employee as if he or she were the most important person in the firm. Excellence is expected everywhere, from the loading dock to the boardroom. As a result, employees at all levels take charge of their own destinies.

5. Motivation comes from vision, not from fear.

Average bosses see fear–of getting fired, of ridicule, of loss of privilege–as a crucial way to motivate people.  As a result, employees and managers alike become paralyzed and unable to make risky decisions.

Extraordinary bosses inspire people to see a better future and how they’ll be a part of it.  As a result, employees work harder because they believe in the organization’s goals, truly enjoy what they’re doing and (of course) know they’ll share in the rewards.

Read the full article and see video…

When the Internet was new, it was difficult to find interesting and relevant websites. Link building was easy in those days. It was often just a matter of letting webmasters know that your site existed and they could link to it. Things have changed in the last couple of decades.

Webmasters today are jaded. They’re bombarded with requests for links, offers to receive hundreds of links for one low price, and comment spam, among other things. Approaching a blogger or site owner today with a request for a link is akin to walking up to a stranger and asking for $50. You might get lucky, but chances are you won’t even get a reply.

The concept of link building — manually identifying and contacting individual webmasters to request a link — is all but obsolete. In this new social era of Internet marketing, to get a link you’ll need to build a relationship.

Relationship building as part of search engine optimization is a difficult concept for ecommerce sites to understand. Imagine a Facebook thread that included three back-and-forth replies from a relevant and influential blogger. If your primary goal is building links, that Facebook thread is gold as a relationship builder.

Links: Give to Get

Yes, search marketers seek links and social mentions. But successful link builders today are able to put that personal need to rack up links aside and act more altruistically, knowing that you have to give more than you receive. Think about being at a party where everyone is trying to avoid that loud-mouthed jerk that only talks about himself. The same concept applies to online relationship building. Take a good look at your link requests, your social media activity, and your blogging. Is it all about your brand and the benefits your products bring to the rest of us? Your brand may be that loud mouth at the party.

To build relationships online requires seeking out others with similar passions or questions or problems. Ask for their opinions. Compliment their points of view. Answer their questions. Like or retweet or +1 their updates. Like in the physical world, people online want to be appreciated and respected for their opinions. And just like in the physical world, friendships flourish when both people give freely of their knowledge and respect.

But, and this is important, only participate if your participation is sincere. As a human, it’s easy to know when we feel something sincerely. But what does a brand feel sincerely about? Anyone participating in link building or social media for a brand needs to be able to personify that brand, to step into the brand’s persona and act on its behalf.

Read the full article…

When running a small business you want to do things right the first time out, otherwise there may be no second chance. If you want to get your small business known, you need to ensure that the word gets out there. In years past, big marketing was reserved for well-established, long lived companies.

But with the age of technology thriving, all that has changed, and even the smallest business can have the loudest voice. Not only that, but staying on top of the ball. With technology being so rapidly introduced, it has never been more important to stay ahead of the competition and familiarize yourself with the latest up-and-coming trends. How do you go about this though? Get the creative juices flowing and keep your head held high. Get ready to bring your business to an entirely new level.

Make Your Presence Known

Treat Your Website as a Storefront

When trying to sell a product, do you want your customers to come into your store with everything on the floor, haphazardly strewn about? I think not. Upkeeping a professional website is crucial. This is what sets the tone for your potential customers. It reflects you and how serious your business is. If you keep your website maintained, with fresh updates regularly, you’ll most definitely keep your visitors coming back for more, not to mention bringing their friends along as well.

Mailing lists are another great idea when it comes to your websites. It allows you to keep your current and future customers in the loop about whatever might be going on with your store.

The last key ingredient in making your website a success is making it search engine optimized (SEO). What good is putting hours upon hours into a website if no-one knows about it?

Taking Advantage of the World of Social Media

Show Your Customers That You Are an Expert

If you plan on having a successful business, you better know what it is exactly that you’re selling. If not, you might be in for a bit of trouble. Blogging is a great way to assert your knowledge, and let your potential customers know that you actually know what you’re talking about.

Blogging allows you to connect one-on-one with your customers. It allows you to hear them out, what they like, what they don’t like, what they want from a store, etc, which in turn will build their trust, especially if they know you’re listening. Another benefit is the fact that blogging will grant you visibility, and the more you show you know what you’re talking about, the more that will lend to your credibility as a business.

Facebook as an Ally

800 million people use Facebook. 100 million of them use the site on a daily basis. Knowing your social media immediately gives you an advantage in today’s market. Facebook is one of the largest audiences out there, it’s granted that at least a few of them will want what you’ve got to offer. You may have to do a bit of searching on your part, but once you tap into the audience you’re looking for, you might see things starting to swing in your favor.

If you already have a Facebook business page, then good for you. You’re already a step ahead of the game. If you don’t, then there’s no need to fret. Once you have your page, it’s time to set it up. Visual representation is a key aspect for your small business. It’s basically your first impression. So fill in all of your business’ information so that visitors can get to know a bit about you and the business.

After that, maybe post a bit on your wall about all of the sales and offers currently available from your website. Adding in your profile picture is actually pretty important as well, as people will be able to recognize your logo one your name starts getting out there. Don’t be afraid to add photos and video clips of your merchandise either, if someone doesn’t feel like checking out your site then and there, seeing a picture of your merchandise might make them think twice.

As stated earlier, what good is putting effort into a website if no-one sees it? After you have your page set up, it’s time to unveil it to the world. Facebook does provide Social Plugin Widgets to add to your site, which are essentially profile badges for your actual website to lead traffic to your Facebook page. If you have some room in your budget, it might be wise to purchase an ad and/or buy fans for your Facebook. This can get quite pricy, but doing both will lead traffic to your site and instantly populate your page, respectively.

It is important to keep your page up to date, and decorate it a bit. But your main focus should be your contact with your visitors. Treat them as you would your own friends. Upload pictures from your latest vacation, share a bit of your personal life with them. They’ll be far more receptive if they know they’re doing business with an actual human being. The most important part about Facebook is to not let it overwhelm you, which it can do in an instant. Keep the ball rolling and keep yourself ahead of the learning curve. Here are 20 tips that could guide you on how to use facebook for business correctly and efficiently.

Keeping Customers Updated in 140 Characters or less

Twitter, although one of the smaller social media sites, can actually be one of the most powerful. Your posts cannot reach more than 140 characters, and your main goal here isn’t to gain as many followers as possible, but rather to use the site as an extension of your main website. Keep all of your followers up to date the moment things happen, such as sales, upcoming items, and discounts.

Every morning, update your twitter a bit with links from different websites related to your products. This will allow your followers to gain more knowledge on whatever your business pertains to. Get your employees involved as well. When people see your business working like a bunch of friends as opposed to just all business, it creates a fun feeling for everyone. Also, don’t forget to include your twitter handle whenever you post your website address.

Use LinkedIn to become more SEO

LinkedIn is a great way to become more search engine optimized. LinkedIn is currently the world’s largest business network, and holds a lot of clout in search engines. If you have a LinkedIn account, and someone does a search for you, your LinkedIn profile will undoubtedly show up. LinkedIn, because of it’s reputation, will also give your business quite a bit of credibility in your customer’s eyes. Don’t forget to add links to all of your important websites as well on your page!

Tapping into the Mobile Market

Although cell phones have been popular for years, the age of the Smartphone is on the rise. Smartphones are basically powerful cell phones that have full internet capabilities, as well as the use of applications, or apps, for personal, business, or recreational use. Some of these apps can be very useful to your business, apps such as Yahoo Local, Citysearch, Google Places, and Yelp!.

Aside from cell phones, other mobile devices are on the rise as well, and all of them have the same abilities, such as iPods and tablet computers. Tapping in the mobile market is a great move, and will keep you one step ahead of the competition, as this is one area where not too many small businesses tread.

Visual Media for Information Marketing

Testimonials and Ads

Testimonials are the ultimate confirmation that you are a valid business, and that others should come to you and buy your products. You will gain much more credibility through testimonials than with sales slogans and such. After all, how do they know they can trust you?

Instead of using sales speeches, get one on one with your customers and give them recommendations, should they ask. This gives them complete control, and doesn’t make them feel pressured into buying anything. You’d be amazed at what difference testimonials make. Don’t count out audio marketing just yet though. It may no longer be as prominent, but it’s still around.

E-books offer a lot to your customer. It expands their knowledge, and proves to them that you are a knowledgeable, credible source of information. Digital readers have become very popular, and are available on most mobile devices as well. Try your hand at writing and E-book and offer it on your site for download. It won’t cost you much time or money to make one, and in turn, shouldn’t cost your customers much either. Just make sure to keep the subject matter relevant to your business.

There is no right way to market your small business, because some things might work for some people, while not for others. It’s really a matter of reaching your target market, and doing so in a fresh, new way that might be a bit out of your comfort zone. Remember, without risks there can be no rewards.

Lets recap:

Staying ahead of the curve can be difficult for small business. Take advantage of a few creative and aggressive marketing strategies to take your business to the next level. Keeping yourself in the running is especially hard when things are changing faster now more than ever. But taking advantage of these newer strategies that are present in today’s market can pretty much guarantee success.

• Search engine optimization and keeping your website professional and complete will keep you in the foreground of potential customer’s minds.

• With so many social media sites out, it would be wise to take advantage of them, as it cost nothing to sign up, and very little to go far.

• Tapping into the mobile market is a great idea, especially now, since this market is expanding so rapidly.

• Using testimonials and e-books helps to enforce your credibility and give you a solid name and brand recognition

About Edmond Hong:
Edmond Hong currently lives in St. Kilda, the beautiful seaside suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. Edmond holds a degree in both Civil Engineering and Business Marketing from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. He is an expert on small business marketing, and has been featured many times in both The Age Australia Business Section and The New York Times, and spends much of his leisure time writing marketing books and coaching entrepreneurs. He also owns a company that promotes facebook fans to companies of all sizes.

“I  was trying to daydream, but my mind kept wandering.”
– Stephen Wright, American actor, writer,  comedian

Daydreaming, long associated with the procrastinator or the lazy student in the back of the classroom, has gotten a bad rap — unfairly it now seems. For a while daydreaming was often looked down on as something to be done only in extreme moderation, and even then only on a rare summer day, preferably in a hammock.

It turns out this pastime may actually be good for you.

“If your mind didn’t wander, then you’d be largely shackled to whatever you are doing right now,” Jonathan Schooler, a psychologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara said in The Boston Globe. “But instead you can engage in mental time travel and other kinds of simulation. During a daydream, your thoughts are really unbounded.”

A daydream, it turns out, is actually your brain’s “default” mode, a fundamental element that allows you to imagine, create and process thoughts. This is great news given that daydreaming may take up a full one-third of our waking lives!

Four Top Reasons to Daydream Intentionally — Starting Today

A daydream is much more than just a silly fantasy to keep you from getting bored at work. Following are some very real benefits that daydreaming has to offer, and if you’re interested in securing some of them for yourself, well, you know what to do.

1. Activate your brain’s “executive network.” This is the area of your brain associated with high-level, complex problem-solving. According to new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the less people were aware their minds were wandering, the more this “executive network,” and also the “default network” associated with easy, routine mental activity, were activated.

What this means is if you’re trying to solve a complicated problem, engaging yourself with a simple task, then letting your mind wander, may help.

1. Improve your relationships and social interactions. When you daydream, your ability to think abstractly flourishes. And most often, we think abstractly about “what if” scenarios relating to people and social situations in our lives, which may help you to be more empathetic in real life.

1. Boost your creativity. People who engage in more daydreaming score higher on experimental measures of creativity, according to research by Jonathan Schooler, a psychologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

1. Increase your success. Daydreaming about achieving a particular goal you have, such as winning an upcoming marathon or getting into grad school, can actually help you achieve it. This type of daydreaming, sometimes called visualization, helps you to become more self-aware, and may actually count as “practice” to your brain that helps you during the actual event.

Read the full article with references…

As media reports have shown us lately, more employers are asking job interview candidates to provide them with Facebook, Twitter and other social media log-in information in order to view private accounts during the background check process.

So, how much damage can a personal Facebook or Twitter account do to someone’s chances of getting a job? To those that think not much, think again.

As more job candidates are discovering, a questionable tweet or sharing a picture of one in a drunken predicament can have very damaging effects on one’s ability to get a job and/or even get in an interview for that matter.

But before your small business decides to spend time on the personal social media accounts of those you are considering interviewing, think about the possible legal ramifications of such actions.

While this is still a very gray area in terms of legalities, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other groups are letting both the potential employee and the employer that they are watching this recent trend.

Did Maryland Officials Go Too Far?

Much attention was directed recently at the Maryland Department of Corrections, where officials asked applicants and even a number of those already employed there to willingly provide their Facebook passwords. According to prison officials, they wanted to view the private accounts to be sure none of the potential guards and some of those already working there did not have any gang ties

Read the full article

Google’s head spam cop Matt Cutts announced the impending launch of a new over-optimization penalty to “level the playing ground.” The disclosure came earlier this month at the South By Southwest (SXSW) conference in Austin, Texas during an open panel — entitled “Dear Google & Bing: Help Me Rank Better!” — with Google’s and Bing’s webmaster and web spam representatives. Google’s goal for the penalty is to give sites that have produced great content a better chance to rank and drive organic search traffic and conversions.

Pretty much all site owners can point to the search results for their dearest trophy phrase and point out at least one site that just shouldn’t be allowed to rank. Competitive ire aside, sometimes sites have poor content but focus extra hard on their search engine optimization efforts. These sites are easy to spot. They usually have a keyword domain, lots of keyword-rich internal linking, and heavily optimized title tags and body content. Their link portfolios will be heavily optimized as well. But their content is weak, their value proposition is low, they’re obviously — to human observers — only ranking because of their SEO. The upcoming over-optimization penalty would theoretically change the playing field so that sites with great content and higher user value rank above sites with excessive SEO.

What Qualifies as Over-Optimization?

No one but Google knows what, exactly, is “over-optimization.” However, Cutts did mention that Google is looking at sites by “people who sort of abuse it whether they throw too many keywords on the page, or whether they exchange way too many links, or whatever they’re doing to sort of go beyond what a normal person would expect in a particular area.” It’s widely believed that keyword stuffing and link exchanges are already spam signals in Google’s algorithm, so either Google intends to ratchet up the amount of penalty or dampening that those spam signals merit algorithmically or they have new over-optimization signals in mind as well.

5 Signals that Should Qualify as Over-Optimization

Because I can’t believe that the bits Cutts references are all there is to the over-optimization algorithm update, I’ve been daydreaming about what I would classify as over-optimization. Keep in mind that I have no inside knowledge as to what they’re planning. In other words, don’t run out and change all these things just because you read this article. But these tactics are on my list because they leave a bad taste in my mouth when I come across them and I sure hope they’re on Cutts’ list as well.

• Linking to a page from that same page with optimized anchor text. If the page is www.jillsfakesite.com/flannel-shirts, and in the body copy of that page I link the words “flannel shirts” to the same page the words are on, IE www.jillsfakesite.com/flannel-shirts, that should count as over-optimization.
• Linking repeatedly from body copy to a handful of key pages with optimized anchor text. If 33 of my 100 pages link to www.jillsfakesite.com from the body copy with the anchor text “Jills Fake Site,” that should count as over-optimization.
• Changing the “Home” anchor text to your most valuable keyword. Usually the home link is the site’s logo. But in the cases where the home link is textual and has been optimized with the juiciest keyword, that should count as over-optimization.
• Overly consistent and highly optimized anchor text on backlinks. If 10 of the 100 links to a page contain the same highly optimized anchor text, such as “Jill’s Fake Site, the Fakest Site Selling Flannel Shirts on the Web,” that should count as over-optimization.
• Generic keyword domain name. They have way too much impact on rankings, and need to be demoted in importance. Now I’m sure it’s difficult to determine which words are generic and which are brands. But Google seems to have cracked that nut at least partially with its related brands results. Surely they must be close to understanding the difference between the non-branded domain littleblackdress.com and the brand whitehouseblackmarket.com.

Read the full article here.