Am I being penalized for on-site keyword optimization?

I have tried to get some descent search engine ranking for the keyword ceramic as well as the plural keyword ceramics, and seeing as search engines in general and Google in particular tend to give me a rather lousy ranking around no. 400 (350-430 over the past two months with lots of regular Google botting thanks to Digital Point forum), I'm beginning to wonder if I'm being penalized for trying a little too hard at keyword stuffing.

I know and agree with the consensus in here about "writing naturally" as opposed to "stuffing", and right now I think my major concern might be with the bottom copy text that is mostly there for the keyword sake (written before I entered this forum).

I'd like for someone savvy, professional and with a keen critical eye (and we know there are plenty of those in here ) to go through the index-page (it's in English, don't worry) and see if you can find the obvious mistake that is killing my page ranking.

Oh yeah... don't waste your breath telling me I won't make it to top 10, I know that. I just need a better feel for this discipline and a top 100 ranking would actually make a big difference to me.

 

I dont think you are being penalized. I think you are just too global. To be honest, your site isnt OVEROPTIMIZED at all. Make your title shorter, make the alt tag on the image shorter, give the page a <h1> tag and make sure its SHORT instead of a big long sentence. I bet Google ranks you #1 on the term

Ingfred Boeskov - Danish ceramics, ceramic artist, textile picture artist, gallery of ceramic works and textile pictures

But even if you made a short sentence, you should rank high on things like ceramic picture, ceramic artist, ceramic gallery if you just make sure you rank better for ceramic first. So get all secundary stuff out of your tags, and keep it short so Google knows what to rank it high for.

The image tag should just be: Ceramic Artist: Ingfred Boeskov

 

First off:

Yes, I know. The competition is hard - at least for such a small site - I did it in part to see if it could be done at all.

- Oh yes I have, and that's how I learned that this otherwise fine tool only provide me with a ranking number If I'm at 1-200 - bummer

This quote only to say I get the point... and I think it's a bunch of really good points you're making there too Dirkjan. Any more coming in and I'll watch closely. (It's "get-the-kids-and-do-diner time, but I'll be on it like a busy little bee tonight)

 

This is all good advice. I would focus the site on the keyword phrases 'Danish ceramics', 'Ingfred Boeskov' and 'textile pictures'. I assume that 'textile pictures' is a common way to describe this art. I do see articles about Ingfred Boeskov displayed when searching for this phrase. If you can, try to get links from the pages that focus on this artist.

Most searchers are narrowing their searches using multiple keywords. It is nearly impossible to find what you want using terms that are too generic.

 

If you get links from other sites about ceramics with the words or phrases you are wanting to compete on in the anchor text your rankings will improve significantly.

 

This title:

Ingfred Boeskov - Danish ceramics, ceramic artist, textile picture artist, gallery of ceramic works and textile pictures

is just too broad.

If you want a kw of "ceramics"

Then use it - nothing else - for title, h1, anchor text and the coop ads.

If you want something els ea s your KWP then use that and only that.

If you want to get your other pages to specialise in other KWs then do the same for those using the home page as the lead page and the anchor text in the new KW leadinfg to the other pages

 

Copy that.

Just one KW phrase per page. 2 max. Drill down in Overture and make one page for each variations. Link all of those back to the main KW 'ceramics' and you'l' soon find yourself a lot higher up I'd imagine.

 

To sum it all up, I have been working now for 6 hours non stop quality time - that's when the misses and the kids have fallen asleep - on changing the entire website (only 29 pages so far and it will never grow beyond a hundred I'm sure) according to the specifications you guys laid out.

It all seemed to make a hell of a lot of sense, and I really appreciate you all taking the time (especially TOPS and Foxy... very savvy advice short and to the point)

Now all thats left to do is wait for Google to come by again I'll return here with a post later on to show approximately how much it helped to do what people told to do.

 

U can use h1 and put style in that. so it will not affect look of your site.
Also, try to put more pages with keyword optimization.

 

Not true... I just realised I've been sleeping. It does go at least up to at least around 400

- sry McDar

 

Hi - I have not got time at the moment but you should look at this thread:

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=8058

This link labelled Ceramics Gallery goes to http://www.potteryceramicsart.frac.dk/gallery_ceramics.php which has a title Cermaics gallery.

Ideally the page should be /ceramics-gallery.php not as you have it

However do not go charging off changing all if it is going to make things difficult.