When a website gets a chance to implement a new design, some tend to go overboard with SEO techniques that they’ve seen on other websites. It’s been long discussed that plastering links at the bottom of the homepage using dynamic keyword creates a bad experience for the user, much less looks like dirty spam. Many big websites are guilty of such practice, while some might benefit or get pardoned due to their brand and size, other’s are definitely taking a chance with this SEO strategy.
I’m usually quite tolerant with the amount of spam-wannabes or the strategies that some sites use to convince me that they are not spamming. Either way, it’s not an original idea it’s annoying as hell when i try to use a site.
This is taken from a reputable rent-finding service, WestSideRental.com. At the bottom of their newly designed homepage, I find what they might think is very intelligent and savvy geo-targeting. Since I live in LA, they show me “related” search terms for apartments in Los Angeles.
The intentions are good, but the obvious keyword stuffing is worse than an amatuer, at best.
This is why I get annoyed by such experience:
- every damn link underlined in red above points to the same URL - http://www.westsiderentals.com/losAngelesApartments/Apartments/for-rent/los-angeles/los-angeles-apartments.html. I get your point Westsiderental guys - but that’s overkill.
- Seeing so many occurrences of “apartments” and “los angeles” simple hurt my eyes. Do you think if you only had one link that said “Apartment in Los Angeles” I wouldn’t follow the link?
- They get away with stuff like that. What happen to Google’s filter on keyword stuffing?
Anyways, I’m not sure who they consulted on this work but this is quite some 6-year-old SEO strategy. Hope they didn’t pay too much or spend too many hours coming up with that 
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