When is it excessive anchor text usage?

[nosuchagency]

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??

[Dr-Pete]

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.

[webseoservices]

I agree with ipositions, we have found that over 80% starts looking suspect and will be penalised

[Sean_Dawes]

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    )

[nosuchagency]

Now that sounds exciting...

[MassivePrime]

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.

[SEOExecutive20]

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.

[flowsimple]

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.