Internal Link Structure

[TwoPints]

Hello Everyone,

I'd be grateful for a little feedback please;

This is my site, the home page
of which is targeting the phrase jobs in **** (I'm sure you can fill i the gap
:))

I've made a few changes recently which has included having the
Contract jobs in **** | Permanent Jobs in **** | Temporary Jobs in **** & Today’s
jobs in **** links added to the homepage...

Perhaps foolishly and impatiently, I did all of these at the
same time, whilst also changing the sites internal link structure, specifically
for all links to the homepage, which previously were like <a<br>href="/">Home and have now been changed to <a<br>href="/">jobs in ****</a<br></a<br>

Meaning that I have 4500 internal links with the anchor text
'jobs in ****'

But rather than seeing an improvement n my SERPs ranking, I have
gone from page 2 of Google to page 6, and falling......

Apart from being inpatient, what have I done wrong?

Many thanks

[TwoPints]

Hi Bfrent,

Sorry to trouble you again. I'm gradually working through your suggestions, I'm keen to get to back to where i was and beyond, but don't want to try to many changes at once. Realistically what  review period should I give each change?

how long do I give google to revie and reindex? I ask, because the site is bouncing about all over the place at the moment, page 6 | Page 2 | page 22 | Page 14....

Thanks in advance

GTN

[Copstead]

OSE is Open Site Explorer by SEOmoz. http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/

While you are making changes, I would monitor daily.

[TwoPints]

Another quick question, realistically after I have made a change, what review period should I give?, I've seen results initially fall in the SERPs only to rise at a later date?

[TwoPints]

So internal linking is not good, or mine is done badly? Thanks Donnie

[TwoPints]

Forgive my ignorance, OSE? thanks Brent.. the 75 domains are all job boards, part of a network, I used to use the footer area of each page to link to eacg of the boards, I'm slowly working on undoing this, do you think I should make that a priority?

[SEODinosaur]

I would have to agree with Brent, this is definitely unnatural and I would recommend changing it back ASAP.

The way I see it google will not punish anyone for external links coming in.. Because if they did my competition would be eliminated in days : )

[Copstead]

At a quick glance, it looks like you might have over optimized the site.

I would slowly start taking steps backwards and see what happens with each step.

Also, looking at OSE, it looks like you are way too heavy on inbound links with "jobs in kent" (75 domains, 103,647 links) and "jobs around kent" (73 domains, 4,029 links)

Then from there it drops down to 4 domains with 16 links.