Too many keywords...how do I get around this?

[africapic]

Hi All.

I have just added a feature for users to make my site more accessible.

I have a drop down menu at the top of each page, that allows users to quick jump to any picture collection. This is so helpful to everyone!

I didn't think Google reads dropdown menus, so I ran it through a text browser and noticed that it sees the dropdown menu! I am optimising my site for the terms keyword+pictures. e.g. lion pictures, leopard pictures, etc.

Currently I have used the word gallery for the menu, but want to change it to "pictures." But, I will then have lion pictures, leopard pictures, Africa Pictures, forty times!!!! This will be on every page! If I change it to gallery, it may also be seen as keyword stuffing.

This is feature is for users, but I am concerned Google will see it as keyword stuffing. Can I call it theme+pictures, instead of theme+gallery?

here is an example www(dot)africapic.com

Thoughts? How do I get around this?

[beu]

Originally Posted by africapic

Hi All.

I have just added a feature for users to make my site more accessible.

I have a drop down menu at the top of each page, that allows users to quick jump to any picture collection. This is so helpful to everyone!

I didn't think Google reads dropdown menus, so I ran it through a text browser and noticed that it sees the dropdown menu! I am optimising my site for the terms keyword+pictures. e.g. lion pictures, leopard pictures, etc.

Currently I have used the word gallery for the menu, but want to change it to "pictures." But, I will then have lion pictures, leopard pictures, Africa Pictures, forty times!!!! This will be on every page! If I change it to gallery, it may also be seen as keyword stuffing.

This is feature is for users, but I am concerned Google will see it as keyword stuffing. Can I call it theme+pictures, instead of theme+gallery?

here is an example www(dot)africapic.com

Thoughts? How do I get around this?

This is one of those questions were the "devil is in the details" so to speak. I would hold off on any other changes until the new page is cached and indexed to track changes in ranking.

http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:...&hl=en&strip=1

The new feature is good for users and therefore is in keeping with the spirit of white hat SEO and Google's webmaster guidelines.

It's not so much the "drop down" that Google doesn't read but rather the non-href links and javascript. I would wait on the latest cache text version of the new page with the new feature so as to see what Google sees. My guess is that there is totally no problem in a substitute of "gallery" for "pictures" but if it were my site, I would hold for a few days to be sure what Google sees. That said I tend to be very cautious when making these kinds of changes. I think my site is the most important site online.

Nice feature, by the way!

[africapic]

Just checked with the cache....Google does read the text....

So will probably change it to pictures to ensure that the theme of the site is about "pictures" :-)

[SkyLite]

Originally Posted by africapic

This is feature is for users, but I am concerned Google will see it as keyword stuffing.
Thoughts? How do I get around this?

There are no penalties for "Keyword Stuffing".
But you don't get any credit for anything over 3% - ish either.

Just use proper descriptions for everything. Grass, africa, wild, safari, jungle, Whatever is right for the animal.

[marketraisecorp]

The best keywords ever are keywords that you have determined to be relevant and have tested to get results in major Search engines.

[africapic]

Thanks for your ideas. Anybody have any practical results/experience in this that they can share?

[SeoCatfish]

Bro just because it reads the keywords in the drop down menus does not mean it sees them as links which is where the real benefit comes into play. You need to make copies of these links in a noscript tag so that the engine can read them as well as users that do not have java script enabled. As long as you use the same link text in the noscript tag as you do in the drop down menu, you will have no problems and this will greatly increase your rankings because the engines will be able to understand the link connectivity between the pages.