Good or Bad Keyword Nesting?

[obelix]

Is this going overboard with keyword nesting?

<h1><a name="Equestrian-Academies-Horse-Ranch-Abbotsford" id="Equestrian-Academies-Horse-Ranch-Abbotsford"></a>Rates<br />
              <span class="h1_sub">Horseback Riding Lessons - Stables - Horse Rentals - HorseBack <br />
Horse Ranch - Abbotsford - Mission - Fraser Valley</span></h1>

The anchor is referenced at the bottom of the page like so:

       <p align="center"><a href="#Equestrian-Academies-Horse-Ranch-Abbotsford">Back to Top<br />
            Horseback Riding Lessons Abbotsford</a></p>

I'm just wondering if this is over-doing keyword matching, and whether this kind of practice is deemed "over the top" by popular search engines.

[linkin99]

Looks kind of spammy IMHO. Maybe cut out the last keyword abbotsford.

Off Topic:

Are you from WI??

[HAWK]

Maybe cut out the last keyword abbotsford.

That ought to do it.

[hooperman]

When I last tested, the contents of id's and classes didn't affect rankings. I can't see names having any effect either.

[obelix]

Thanks for this guys, I just hired an "SEO expert" and was a little skeptical of his techniques. Take a look at the code behind this site and let me know if it looks like it's the work of an SEO professional, or an amateur. I'm just wanting to make sure I got the right man for the job, and if his code looks "spammy" I want to be able to address it.

Thanks guys I really appreciate any help you guys can give me on this.

[Thing]

I think your SEO guy is trying a bit too hard. Everything looks great except for the links. I try to keep links at most 3 keywords, but typically two. Having 4 or 5 keywords in a link looks very spammy to engines.

[obelix]

By links do you mean the actual URL string? Just wanna make sure.

[Thing]

Yes, the actual page names.

[linkin99]

I'd keep the page names to 3 keywords at the most.

[obelix]

One more question. He starts off each page with something like this:

<h1>Horseback Riding Lessons - Stables - Horse Rentals - HorseBack 
Horse Ranch - Abbotsford - Mission - Fraser Valley</h1>

Is this neccessary? To the user it's like this jumble of words at the start of each page. Is this neccessary for good SEO? Or is it again keyword nesting?

[i-devs]

I would have to vote for spammy as well with the named anchors ad id attributes being filled with gobs of keywords.

Overload of keywords in the title tags, and all very similar... diluting the value of the keywords that are in there. And yes, the h1 tags are also probably diluting/splitting the value and look a bit spammy.

Using the same description meta on each of the pages. No, it may not have much impact if any for ranking, but if you are going to have one, I'd at least try to differentiate it and make it about the page, which is what is it meant for.

What a waste of links on the home page... going through so much effort to create keyword rich page names.... boarding-stables-horses-rentals only to use Click Here To Learn More for the anchor text. About the only one who should ever have anchor text of "click here" is Adobe.

[Shyflower]

It's clear that your SEO person doesn't have a clue about on page optimization.
From your page title to your heading elements your page is poorly optimized.

1. Your page title is one of the heaviest weighted items in your SEO. Your home page (especially) should indicate your site name — Matsqui Stables:
Horseback Riding Lessons, Horse Rentals, Trail Riding, & Horse Boarding

2. Your page description should describe your page, not be stuffed with keywords since SEs put little weight on description but use it to tell the reader what they'll see on the page. Poor descriptions are a major reason for quick hits that lead to quick backouts. — Providing affordable horse riding, boarding, and riding lessons in Canada's beautiful Frazier Valley.

3. H1 elements should appear only once per page and describe the page topic. Use h2 elements for section headings to describe different sections of your page.

4. Link text that says "click here to learn more" isn't doing a thing for your site's ranking in the results pages.

Unfortunately that's just the start of what needs to be done to improve both your home page and overall site optimization. Give this guy your best bucking bronco and wish him well.