Optimising too agressively?

Can you be _too_ insistent with your keywords?

[borisbaloney]

I am a n00b in the world of SEO and am in the process of putting up a new website. I would like to know if it is possible for your site to be _too_ well optimised for a keyword phrase.

eg.
title - "blue cheap widgets"
domain - "blue cheap widgets"
meta desc - "blue cheap widgets from $10"
h1 - "blue cheap widgets"
h2 - "blue cheap widgets designs"
h3 - "blue cheap widgets with long hair"
1st paragraph - "blue cheap widgets ....."
incoming links will all be "blue cheap widgets"
yada yada yada...

APART from the site being ugly from the users point of view, would google penalize me for being too insistant on my keywords?

[heini]

Interesting question, Boris. I have to say I can't see any evidence for this so far.
Basically it's like this: the off page stuff, i.e. the links carry so much weight with Google, that things like keyword density doesn't play a role.
Titles, and link text, I guess that's it really. To have the main keyphrase in headers is recommendable. If they are in the plain <p>paras</p> is probably of no concern to Google.
Coming from that it's hard to see how you could overoptimize for Google. It just won't have much effect.

[fathom]

Hi borisbaloney & welcome to WebmasterWorld! ;)

title - "blue cheap widgets" Good - if this is your keyphrase

domain - "blue cheap widgets" Good - if this is your keyphrase - I prefer the company name as the domain name but a keyphrase one won't hurt (for ranking)

meta desc - "blue cheap widgets from $10" Good - if this is your keyphrase

h1 - "blue cheap widgets" Good - if this is your keyphrase

h2 - "blue cheap widgets designs" Good - if this is your keyphrase

h3 - "blue cheap widgets with long hair" Good - if this is your keyphrase

1st paragraph - "blue cheap widgets ....." Good - if this is your keyphrase- but note - a paragraph should be between H1 & H2 & H3 etc. you reduce the effectiveness of H Tags without text copy between each use.

incoming links will all be "blue cheap widgets" Good - if this is your best keyphrase - however try just >> widgets << here if you can get them. Logic - the single word is relevant to any phrase that word is in and normally two word phrases are less competitive therefore greater chance of capturing many phrases, and not just one.

Adding... "bold" keyphrases as well - eyes are drawn to bold and bots like it to.

[borisbaloney]

Thanks for the help you two, it is great to get responses from authoritive posters. I will certainly be creating pages that actually have content and not just chunks of keywords.

I am focusing hard on one particular phrase because of three reasons:
1. I am providing a _very_ compeditive product for the phrase.
2. It is a small to medium keyword phrase as far as populatity goes.
3. I am new at SEO despite having ~20 business sites up (less than 20 visitors per day, per site).

I am creating pages for other phrases and keywords but one phrase is definately my important one. Once again thanks for your help.

[fathom]

Adding... "bold" keyphrases as well - eyes are drawn to bold and bots like it to.

A note on my last post though -- too much bold hurts so be reasonable.

Good luck. :)

[borisbaloney]

Cheers Fathom, easy on the bold.

Hmmmmm I wonder which phrase I might choose to bold. ;)

[DaveN]

italics works quite well too,

I tend to use them like:

DaveN said best blue cheap widgets on the net
borisbaloney said blue cheap widgets arrived next day

H6 tag very useful use in the footer.

All trademarks and copyrights held by respective owners.
(c) blue cheap widgets 1998-2003 all rights reserved

<h6 tag> the best on the net for blue widgets <end h6 tag>

DaveN

[borisbaloney]

Cheers DaveN,
I am aware of italic text being another relitively minor form of SEO, but the way you included your keywords in such a user friendly way has helped me a lot.