When anchor text that has excessive keyword usage is sensed by the ever vigilant spiders from search engines, the special over-optimization filter gets triggered. Anchor text as you all know is the set of words that are hyperlinked or highlighted in a light blue color. When the cursor is place on the highlighted portion the symbol changes to a mode that can be clicked. When you click, you are automatically diverted to another website. This is the main object of SEO, however when things get overdone, just like food getting overcooked or anything for that matter, happening in excess of the normal, things start going helter-skelter.
The search engine algorithms are specially programmed to sense such over optimization of anchor text, and the last Penguin update was all about over optimization of anchor text, which makes things too obvious. The entire game plan was that the user browses through some interesting content and happens to stumble upon a link that looks interesting. Curiosity goads him or her to click on the hyperlinked anchor text that leads him to another site. It is entirely up to the curious person and the marketer’s website as to what can happen next. It may turn into a profitable lead, or just fizzle away as idle curiosity.
However, when there is an unusually large amount of anchor text (quite different from the normal) that points to a particular website, the spiders do what they are meant to do. You can’t have anchor text that sounds similar or is directly related to the website that the link is pointing to. This is the surmise of the latest Penguin update from Google. If SEO are going to indulge in violating this basic rule, you are going to end up being noticed, however by the wrong viewer (spider) and not for the reasons you were hoping to be noticed (to get diverted to a particular website)
The need of the hour is to go into the issue thoroughly and analyze the backlink and make sure that it will come clean in any “backlink audit”. The audit looks at many such backlinks and checks where these links point to. If they invariably point to reliable sites, everything is fine. However, on the contrary if the links point to sites that look shady and questionable, it is for the webmasters to take necessary action. It pays to check on what the others (your competitors) are up to and how effective their usage of keywords and anchor texts is working out. It wouldn’t hurt to study the anchor text and look for a pattern that has led to the success.
It is also advisable to look out for links that smell of spam. You need to realize that you cannot afford to touch spam links even with a barge pole. The first thing to do is to remove these links whenever you find them. Simultaneously, you need to concentrate on building fresh links that are appropriate and relevant. Try to fit in the anchor text as naturally as possible, instead of making it too obvious that it has been planted deliberately. More important than this is the need to create meaningful content that is catchy and holds the attention of users.
Author’s Bio:
Jake Anderson currently works at http://www.fastinternetdeals.com, a site that enables everyone to learn about how to save on broadband and internet cable.