Is using keyword phrase in anchor "unnatural"? - Google Search and SEO forum at WebmasterWorld - WebmasterWorld

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Is using keyword phrase in anchor "unnatural"?

Kickedout

5:14 pm on Jun 5, 2012 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member

My site ranked ok days ago for a keyword phrase, I got some links using "widgets on city". Seems like G changed his mood and while I was in first position, I'm in 4th page now. (site has 12 years, always ranked good)

1) Does that means we shouldn't use keyword phrase we're targeting anymore?

2) Should we pretend that we don't care to rank on keyword phrases that points to what we sell and users want?

3) Should we get more links using "natural" anchors as "click here" or widgets + something we don't care

4) Since looking for already existant links and change it it's impossible, should we focus in stopping wanting any links and just develop content (that I can't how would be possible to rank?)

5) For pages affected by ranking down post panda, does changing the titles, descripton and texts help (so they don't point to "widgets on city" thus "unnatural" links wouldn't be referring to page.

I feel like a dolphin who received fishes for years, for doing the funny trick. And now is punished for doing it.

canuckseo

9:48 pm on Jun 5, 2012 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member

There's been lots of discussion on this - probably during the latest Google update they devalued a bunch of your links.

You can still do link building using anchor text, just have to be more careful how you do it.

maximizer

2:53 am on Jun 6, 2012 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member

You want a sizeable number of links with your brand / domain name as it's anchor text and other unnatural or rather "natural" 'click here', 'visit ...' links before your other "anchor text" links are weighed in.

Right now, if your anchor text profile is too commercially oriented, you want to ensure you build more domain/brand oriented links to balance your link portfolio ratios.

Kickedout

12:13 am on Jun 7, 2012 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member

Right now, if your anchor text profile is too commercially oriented, you want to ensure you build more domain/brand oriented links to balance your link portfolio ratios.

Can someone officially confirm on this?

tedster

3:20 am on Jun 7, 2012 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member

10+ Year Member

In my day to day work, I look at a lot of backlink profiles. I can't give you any "official" statement, but I can tell you that natural profiles are pretty light on matching anchor text. Any other pattern jumps out at me, and when I check with a client whose site looks like that they almost always confirm a "link building" program of some kind - and it's not chasing freely given editorial links.

The greatest proportion of natural (unarranged) backlink use something like "Company Name" or "domain name" - and then comes the whole "click here" category. I'm pretty sure that Google has dependable metrics on what percentage and variety of matching anchor text is natural.

The one exception might be for backlinks to blog articles, where an exact copy of the article's title element is a bit moew common, even in natural backlinks.

Any one backlink profile can go somewhat outside the average numbers. But if it deviates to a statistically significant degree, then you're probably courting trouble.

canuckseo

3:12 pm on Jun 7, 2012 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member

I don't think this - in my experience what gets most sites is doing a ton of link building on only 1 or 2 terms - very unnatural and easy to spot. Link building on a variety of anchor text and rotating through them looks more natural. I have yet to do link building using "click here" or "visit" or anything like that and I haven't had a site get hit by any of these updates. I don't think "click here" is a natural link, what makes it appear natural is how and when google finds and follows it. If the links are scattered all over the web and the links don't appear to follow a pattern (IE not the same 1 or 2 or 3 phrases all the time) then they appear natural. IMHO patience and building links in small batches works the best - not a blast all at once - spread it out and do it constantly.