When is it excessive anchor text usage?
-
Hrello fellow Mozzers.
There's been alot of writing about excessive anchor text usage, and as an SEO I get it. Don't get to crazy about it, but - WHEN is it excessive anchor text usage?
Is it excessive if I have 50 links distributed in 10 blogposts?
Is it excessive if I have a 250 links distributed across the entire site?It's fair enough that excessive anchort text usage get's you penalized, but it's freakishly annoying that nobody tells you WHEN you've reach the line that defines "excessive"...
Anyone??
-
I think you have to separate out a couple of issues here...
First off, 250 links distributed across a site or 50 across 10 blog posts may have very little additional value than a few links on a site or 10 links on 10 blog posts. Linking root domains generally have a lot more impact than total links. If you've got 50 links on 10 posts to the same site, it's very likely some of those links are low quality (even not having any idea what the anchor text is). I'm assuming you mean inbound links all to the same site (and even the same page), though. It's really tough to talk in generalities.
It depends a lot on the targeted text. If your exact-match anchor text is your brand name, or if it's product-oriented but matches your domain name, you'll get more leeway. If Apple has 10,000,000 links to "Apple, Inc.", Google won't care. If Bob's plumbing has 1,000 links and 90% of them are to "buy cheap viagra", that's going to look bad really fast. So, "excessive" can be very situational.
If you're targeting one phrase over and over, most of your links are built/paid (not "natural") and that phrase is keyword-loaded without reflecting your brand, you're probably pushing too hard. Diversification is very important. I think targeting is important, to a point, but it's really easy to over-think it.
-
I agree with ipositions, we have found that over 80% starts looking suspect and will be penalised
-
I have seen clients who have gotten warnings in webmaster tools with even less. More like 23% (which was my first comment when we picked them up..sadly an agency before just went nuts with 1 term...so time for me to clean it up )
-
Now that sounds exciting...
-
We've noticed that rather than being a number it's a percentage. Once you hit 80% of all anchor text being the same term you will usually get penalized. This doesn't seem to apply to new sites though.
-
Pashmina is absolutely true in the fact that not anyone can give you an accurate limit. Also, pointing out the 30 anchor links that she is specifying leads me to believe it's based on a great article that Randfish wrote.
This is the link to the article here: Testing the Value of Anchor Text Optimized Internal Links
You will notice that he replies to a commenter with the following questions:
"Very interesting Rand. I've always wanted to test the effects of internal anchor texts.
You stated that excessive internal anchor text linking can trip an automated penalty, what do you consider an excessive amount? Thanks for opening our eyes to this."
Rand's answer was based on his observation as the following:
"I honestly can't say where the limit lies, but in both cases I observed, there were in excess of 30 links sitewide that were clearly anchor text optimized to push rankings."
Although this info seems to be valuable information, it may be outdated and hold less value to the current time.
-
I don't think anyone can accurately say what the threshold is, or if there is a single number for all sites. I've read somewhere a while back that the threshold is around 30 anchor links that are specifically for optimization (and not for user's benefit).
If you still have heavy footers, your links can be immediately reduced with a redesign of that area. Removing internal and barely used navigation elements will help too. Analyzing your site flow via Google Analytics can help you figure out where to tighten a page and get rid of links that no one is clicking on.
In general I think we all have to become more purist, and sparse in our internal anchor text linking. And then get very creative with designing a very good navigation and architecture for our audience. The Rational Surfer Model lends some insight into this too.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How does a business have a link back where I can't see the anchor text?
So, I'm running competitor websites through Open Site Explorer and following the link from Moz to where their link is coming from. It has the anchor text 'Christmas Gifts'. When I go to that page there is no mention of this anchor text. No mention of that persons website. No display ad's that could be providing that link. How is this link pointing to their page?
Link Building | | Byron_Bay_Gifts0 -
Sitemap.xml change to anchor links (converter)
Hi all, I would like import the sitemap.xml to an anchorlinks list. List with links navigatetion html ^^. Is there a posibility to use a tool or in excel? Because I will use 5000 products and 1000 brands.
Link Building | | Dreamgame20160 -
Position Drop - Anchor Text Penalty
Hi - About a month ago we dropped out of all out top position ranking and now can be found around page 600 on Google for all those keywords. I feel this is because our SEO company over used or money keywords as anchor text - Could this be correct?
Link Building | | jj34340 -
Exact match anchor text is negative signal?
Hi all, I am wondering if the exact match anchor text is 100% negative signal after the penguin. I mean even from relevant sites and natural use. During the last 2 weeks I see negative SERP changes and I start to think that it is because exact match keyword anchor text is used. I also use some other anchor texts along with it all the time.. but now I think of using 100% exact match anchor free links. Does anybody have similar observations? Thank you in advance.
Link Building | | VasilTasev0 -
Should you guest post on a site that allows unrelated anchor text?
Suppose a blog has pretty good authority and quality articles but allows guest posters to use really random anchor text in their bios like Miami mexican restaurants when the blog is about blogging. Is there a risk that all the outbound links on the site will be devalued?
Link Building | | ProjectLabs0 -
How to deal with over-optimised anchor text?
Hi, We took on a client a few months ago, who came to us after seeing a drop in rankings. After cleaning up the site, we concluded that their drop is more than likely down to over-optimised anchor text. The keywords that have mainly been affected are the ones that have a majority of links with the exact anchor text. The links have built using blog networks, articles and there are some comments thrown in for good measure. We have no way of getting them removed. Hmm, links can't hurt you!? So what is the best solution? Has anyone had any success over coming this issue? What sort of time scales are we looking at? Gareth
Link Building | | garethbrown0 -
External Anchor text page to target?
I have onpage optimised 4 pages on my website example.com/services/chosenkeyword-1 example.com/services/chosenkeyword-2 example.com/services/chosenkeyword-3 example.com/services/chosenkeyword-4 Should I built links with various anchor text to my home page or the exact internal page as above? Cheers.
Link Building | | Socialdude0 -
Links with very bad anchor text!
I have a client with an online shop with auto parts in Romania, on google.ro. The site is quite old but it hasn't good links. The only links (about 700 seen in OSE) the site have are from porn sites/forum/blogs with all kind of obscene words in the anchor text. Those links were placed by competitors, i am sure of that. Now how Google treats those links? Does he know that those links were not placed by any normal human? Does it gives credit to them or doesn't? The site is on a very competitive niche and it is not ranking so good.
Link Building | | maldiniii0