When does optimized text become over-optimized?

[lionstail]

I've been using the same SEO strategy for quite a while now- placing two keyword rich anchor text links in each paragraph of text on a page. I personally hate the way this looks- a page with 4 paragraphs can look like it's swimming with links, but I'm wondering if these links help with optimization (as was suggeseted to me), or hurt it? Can these pages be TOO optimized?

Also, can a page be optimized for too many keywords at once? Can this cause each of them to actually be less optimized, since the focus is split between different keywords?

Thanks.

[Brett_Tabke]

> placing two keyword rich anchor text links in each paragraph of text on a page.

That is smart.

> but I'm wondering if these links help with optimization

Yes, yes they do.

> Can these pages be TOO optimized?

Only if it crosses the line into something that wouldn't pass a hand check. Such as too many repetitions of the same word, or something that was clearly designed only for a bot to read.

> Also, can a page be optimized for too many keywords at once?

Yes they can. I would recommend focussing on one keyword or stemmed keyword phase per page. eg: it is hard to *not* focus on "bananas" when you are targetting "fresh green bananas".