As SEO experts for decades, we see the same mistakes repeated over and over again. A site builds a good reputation, traffic comes in, and suddenly the page rank drops. When we pull the anchor text report, we notice a pattern: The backlinks have used the same commercial keyword phrase, and that is known as over-optimized anchor text.
This can make any site suffer a Google penalty when repeated wording is done deliberately to manipulate search engine rankings. In this comprehensive guide, we explain what over-optimized anchor text is, how Google treats it, and the potential issues that you need to identify when you are auditing your backlink profile.
What does over-optimized anchor text really mean?
Let’s say that our company Fastlinky wants to rank for the keyword “ best SEO services”. Several websites find our content link-worthy but use the same anchor text known as “ best SEO services”.
When several websites have the same anchor text, it can look unnatural to Google, and it can be viewed as a deliberate attempt to influence search engine rankings. A more natural way to link your website is to distribute the anchor text such as “ A guide to SEO services”, “ visit fastlinky”, “ a company overview of SEO services”. Please note that repeating keywords is not bad, but when it’s deliberately done to manipulate search engines and is unnatural to the reader, then it becomes a problem.
How Google treats over-optimized anchor text
The Penguin update
Things quickly changed when Google introduced the Penguin update. Since there was a lot of web spam in 2012, Google came up with the Penguin update in 2016 and began operating in real time. With the use of this algorithm, Google can easily identify links that it considers manipulative rather than penalizing the website entirely.
Let’s say that we have built a backlink profile on the keyword “ best SEO services.” When Google checks that several websites have used the same anchor text, Google might discard their vote of confidence, and Fastly might notice a drop in rankings even if we have paid to acquire them.
Guest post violation
Google does not consider an anchor-text-heavy guest post a violation; it does consider it when you have published too many guest post articles with the same anchor text to artificially boost search engine rankings. Let’s consider,our company, Fastlinky, in two scenarios. The first is known as a legitimate guest post, and the second is known as a manipulative guest post.
Legitimate guest post: Our company publishes an article on “ best SEO services” on a respected platform that deals in SEO, and we create a hyperlink to view our services. This cannot be considered a violation as the anchor text is built around the content, and it will help the readers to find genuine information.
Manipulative guest post: Now our company does several guest posts on random websites and uses the same keyword-heavy anchor text as “ best SEO services”. This has been created with one purpose: to create link spam and influence search engine rankings. This pattern violation falls under Google’s spam policies.
Thus, it can be concluded that writing a legitimate guest post that benefits the user is not considered a violation, but writing a guest post that is done to violate search engine rankings is a violation.
How to detect over-optimized anchor text
1. Have you noticed something unusual? You keep building backlinks for a page, and despite new backlinks, the page does not seem to improve. This means that the links that you acquired are not very valuable. This is a clear indication of over-optimized anchor text.
2. Check the individual backlinks that are pointing to your website, not just the entire website. The concentration might tell you about the anchor text optimization. For instance, 80 of 100 backlinks to our company might have used the same text, “ best SEO services.” This requires a review to see if they were built that way.
3. If the anchor text distribution is the same, then it can be considered manipulative. For instance, if we check our backlink profile and find out that most of our texts are “ best SEO services “ or “ cheap link building company” rather than having a brand name or natural descriptions, then we review the sources
4. Go to Google Search Console and open the feature that says Manual actions report. This report shows if your website has undergone a policy violation, and we use Google troubleshooting techniques to solve it. For instance, if we receive a Google manual report that has issues pointing to our website, we would correct it.
How to fix over-optimized anchor text
1. If you have been building backlinks just to alter search engine rankings, then you need to stop the practice at once. Stop using exact-match keywords that would make your profile look manipulative to search engines. This means you don’t have to remove every backlink that contains the exact match; the priority should be checking Google spam policies and earning backlinks naturally
2. Instead of buying backlinks, the goal is to make sure that you create content that acts as a resource page. Include natural writing, statistics, reports, and original data that other people might find useful. Instead of buying backlinks from random websites, focus on genuine partnerships, legitimate outreach, and digital PR. When you do this, different publishers may distribute the anchor text and provide genuine references to your website.
3. Edit the links that need changing. For instance, if you have used the phrase “ best SEO services” to link your service page, change it to something else on other pages so that it fits the context. You can use “ our SEO approach” on other pages so that it can target the website without forcing the same wording structure.
4. Use Google Disavow tools to take necessary actions. If there are a large number of spammy links targeting your website, consider using the Google Disavow tool to take necessary action. Don’t use the tool unnecessarily.
5. The last step is monitoring your progress, and this would require your patience. Check if the links that you have acquired were acquired naturally or were acquired through PBN. Discontinue if you have used backlinks to distort search engine rankings. Correcting the link and anchor text does not guarantee immediate results, and there is no recovery timeline, but following the rules might make your website gain life again.
Outreach method
Whenever you plan to do an outreach campaign or guest post, make sure that you use a variation of anchor text to make the content enjoyable to readers. It should not look like it has been placed to manipulate rankings, and it should be a natural placement. In addition, ask the publisher to use different variations of anchor text so that it fits their publishing style.
Depending on the context of your work, make sure that you use branded anchors, naked URLs, and partial-match anchor text depending on the context you are writing for. Make the backlink profile look natural so that your content becomes link-worthy.
Point blank, the basic job of anchor text is to tell readers what they will find on the other side of town. Read your anchor text aloud when you are placing it inside the content; if it doesn’t make sense, remove it. Forcing it will do you no good.
Bottom line
Over-optimized anchor text happens when you create many links with the same wording. Your backlink profile suffers a hit, and you trigger a Google penalty. The easiest way to bypass this is using variations of anchor text that fit naturally in your content and don’t sound unnatural to the reader.
The reader should find exactly what you intended. For instance, if your anchor text is “ best SEO services’ then by clicking that link, they should find your service page and not your homepage. Remember, the strongest backlinks are built on genuine connections and creating link-worthy content.
