Can Too Much SEO Be a Bad Thing?With rumors that Google could start penalizing over-optimized websites, here are three tips for staying on the search giant's good side.

As a small business owner using the web to reach customers, you've surely been implementingsearch engine optimization tacticsto make sure your site turns up high in web searches. But just when you might feel like you're starting to get the hang of this SEO thing, it appears that search giantGooglemight start penalizing websites that are over-optimized.

At this year'sSouth by Southwest节日,谷歌发言人马特·卡茨hintedthat such a penalty would weed out sites that focus too much on SEO and too little on providing a quality experience for their users.

So what factors might play a role in an over optimization penalty? Cutts outlined several signals that would qualify as too much SEO, such as "too many keywords on a page" and "exchange way too many links."

The tricky part is determining what constitutes too many keywords or links. While the penalty has not yet been put in place, you can still take steps to make sure your business's site doesn't end up being labeled "overly optimized":

Related:A Six-Step Survival Guide for Search Engine Updates

1. Write content for people first and search engines second.Site content written specifically with SEO in mind is often clunky and difficult to read. Focus on providing content that's useful to your readers and trust that links and search engine results will follow.

2. Focus on link quality over quantity.Just because you can buy 10,000 profile links for $10 from any number of link sellersdoesn't mean you should. Instead, redirect your efforts toward courting quality links that reflect well on your site.

3. Pay attention to Google's '23 Questions.'Though these questions were released in conjunction with last year'sPanda update, there's no doubt that these stated quality parameters are still in effect. Focus on getting your site in line with these principles to avoid over optimization penalties Google could release.

Related:新Google Search Update Could Spell More Trouble for Business Websites

Of course, Google hasn't announced anything specific yet and rarely releases exact details about the internal operation of its algorithms. To stay up-to-date on what Google does next, you can monitor搜索引擎优化新闻sites and Google's网站管理员blogfor details about potential over optimization penalties as they're rolled out.

What steps will you take to make sure your site doesn't get penalized?Share your suggestions in the comments below.