Recommendation to fix Google backlink anchor text over optimisation filter penalty (auto)

[Qasim_IMG]

Hi guys,

Some of you may have seen a previous question I posted regarding a new client I started working with. Essentially the clients website steadily lost all non domain name keyword rankings over a period of 4-12 weeks, despite content changes and various other improvements. See following::

http://www.seomoz.org/q/shouldn-t-google-always-rank-a-website-for-its-own-unique-exact-10-word-content-such-as-a-whole-sentence

After further hair pulling and digging around, I realised that the back link anchor text distribution was unnatural for its homepage/root.

From OSE, only about 55/700 of links anchor text contain the clients domain or company name!....8%.

The distribution of the non domain keywords isn’t too bad (most repeated keyword has 142 links out of the 700). This is a result of the client submitting to directories over the last 3 years and just throwing in targeted keywords.

Is my assumption that it is this penalty/filter correct? If it is I guess the lesson is that domain name anchor texts should make up more of your links?

MY QUESTION:

What are some of the effective ways I can potentially remove this filter and get the client ranking on its homepage again?

Ensure all new links contain the company name?
Google said there was no manual penalty, so not sure if there’s any point submitting another reconsideration request?

Any advice or effective experiences where a fix has worked would be greatly appreciated!

Also, if we assume company is "www.Bluewidget.com", what would be the best way to link most naturally:

Bluewidget
Blue widget
Blue widget .com
www.bluewidget.com
http://www.bluewidget.com....etc

I'm guessing a mix of the above, but if anyone could suggest a hierarchy that would be great.

[Qasim_IMG]

Thanks for the response, that answer from Rand is definitely helpful.

Do you (or anyone else!) have actual experience of this penalty and getting past it?

I guess I'm looking for some positive assurance before I start on backlinking that could potentially not fix anything

[Confetti_Wedding]

Hey Hash,

I'd start work on building non-keyword links from good authority sites. You need control over the anchor text so start in the usual places (directories) etc. Rand wrote a good Q&A answer on anchor text variations which is worth reading.

Remeber to build links not only to the homepage but to other pages throughout the site.

Personally, I wouldn't bother with another reconsideration request to Google as the number of link you'll need to build is relatively small.