What are the chances of an infographic penalty?

[ProjectLabs]

Suppose that you created a great infographic and the embed code included an exact match link. For example: This infographic was created by Shoestore, a leading provider of speed boosting shoes. If the infographic is embedded on 100 domains with an anchor text link (and say you previously had 100 linking domains) is there a risk of penalty for too many exact match links in a short period?

[DavidKonigsberg]

I would use "brand +Broad Keyword" as anchor text and in my opinion you should be safe but seo is a art not a science so do what you feel comfortable with.

[loopyal]

Yes, I agree.

Unfortunately, google helped to create almost all of the problems in SEO.

Hopefully, some of this stuff can be rolled back without destroying everything and everyone.

[NakulGoyal]

Yes, I agree. Some great responses here from EGOL, Click2Rank and Alan. You could essentially use your brand as the safest approach.

[EGOL]

Matt Cutts has been talking about cracking down on overoptimized websites.  In my opinion, a good way to attack that is to eliminate the value of anchor text.

[loopyal]

I agree with Click2Rank and EGOL

• Now that we know what we think we know about google.

It used to make perfect sense to use the keywords that match what you want to be known for, but the game has changed a lot in the past year.

For the case of providing something that others will use, hopefully in large numbers, the domain name seems like a better option.

Some webmasters may have a standard they use, and they will stick to it whatever you do, but you are probably better off using the domain name, with or without the www. - whichever way you do it on your site, and any variations from that will be out of your control.

If you have an exact match domain name, here is where it will help you.

Another option could be the name of your site. For example a shoe store whose domain name is easyfitshoes.com could use "Easyfit Shoes." I don't see how google could have a problem with that. Anyone else got ideas about this?

[EGOL]

I would not add a link with an exact match anchor text.  My domain would be the anchor text.

[Click2Rank]

while only 100 links is unlikely to generate a keyword specific penalty, using an exact match that way is definitely not best practices SEO, as it's so blatant.  Its this exact kind of abuse of the reason for having anchors that has caused such a mess in our industry and forced Google to find new and continually ever increasing ways to punish sites.

So it's best to avoid this tactic altogether.

• Alan Bleiweiss

C2R Director of Search Services