Recovering from anchor text over optimization algorithm

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lingy21

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Hi,

I was hit a week ago by penguin for over optimised anchor text on one keyword only which is the most profitable. However i've recently been working on bringing it down by building more links. I just have two questions:

What is an acceptable anchor text %?
How long can it be until google re-adjusts my rank after reducing it to an acceptable level?

Thanks
 
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I do indeed, sorry i'll add that in now
 
Thats what i have been doing, the majority of it comes from a site wide link which i've recently changed the anchor text on so hoping that should get me ranking again for the keyword i got penalised on.
 
Was it a manual penalty? I once had a manual anchor optimization penalty (was partial link affected only but still). They didn't remove it until I either disavow or asked other webmaster to remove the link. So once you have manual penalty the % for accepting exactly anchor text non related to your domain name or obviously going for a specific keyword is 0...
 
No it wasn't a manual penalty, i hadn't received anything in my webmaster tools. Just noticed one day that my site had dropped off for one of the keywords it had been heavily over optimised too.
 
lingy21 said:
No it wasn't a manual penalty, i hadn't received anything in my webmaster tools. Just noticed one day that my site had dropped off for one of the keywords it had been heavily over optimised too.
Click to expand...

I have limited experience (two sites) but I've used a number of techniques. The key to recovery is dilution or removal, either change the offending anchor text or add more links that don't contain your keywords.

For dilution, you can either build new links from the usual sources, PBNs, 2.0's etc or as I've personally done, 301 redirect another domain, at which point your money site will inherit the anchor text from the 301's domain, this can take a little time though. If you're going for the 301 approach then choose a domain that has a large number of back-links, and be 100% certain it doesn't have a penalty attached to it by adding it to webmasters first (and subsequently deleting it from there).

Removal..well that's pretty straight forward. Just be aware you're in for a wait of potentially weeks, it's incredibly frustrating. I recently read a thread from another BHW member (tony_d I think) who found that algorithmic penalties are applied on top of a domain's regular ranking/ranking factors, I'm paraphrasing here but basically continue with your regular SEO efforts and wait to it to resolve itself after making the necessary changes.

To answer your question directly, no one truly knows the right percentage for exact match anchor text is, although the general consensus is that below 10% is safe.
 
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Hi OP may I ask how did you know you've been hit by penguin? I know we always have to diversify anchor text and all but I've seen sites ranking with like 80% exact match anchor text from russian sites.

It just doesn't make sense given all we preach here.
 
A nice week or two of GSA contextual blasting has always taken me out of anchor text penalties
 
Typically 10-20% variations of your main keywords seems to be acceptable. Some people don't repeat, others go heavier, some argue that Penguin is off and it has been revamped into more of a BS filter.
 
myopic1 said:
I have limited experience (two sites) but I've used a number of techniques. The key to recovery is dilution or removal, either change the offending anchor text or add more links that don't contain your keywords.

For dilution, you can either build new links from the usual sources, PBNs, 2.0's etc or as I've personally done, 301 redirect another domain, at which point your money site will inherit the anchor text from the 301's domain, this can take a little time though. If you're going for the 301 approach then choose a domain that has a large number of back-links, and be 100% certain it doesn't have a penalty attached to it by adding it to webmasters first (and subsequently deleting it from there).

Removal..well that's pretty straight forward. Just be aware you're in for a wait of potentially weeks, it's incredibly frustrating. I recently read a thread from another BHW member (tony_d I think) who found that algorithmic penalties are applied on top of a domain's regular ranking/ranking factors, I'm paraphrasing here but basically continue with your regular SEO efforts and wait to it to resolve itself after making the necessary changes.

To answer your question directly, no one truly knows the right percentage for exact match anchor text is, although the general consensus is that below 10% is safe.
Click to expand...

Cheers guys for the replies, i've gone the dilution route got down to 7% anchor text will probably keep going till 4% and hopefully should see a change. Just a bit of a pain as i was so close to the top spots.

It wasnt a manual penalty as i've received nothing in the WMT inbox, its just something i noticed across my 3 sites that they had all been hit with a similar ranking penalty for that one key word as all 3 sites were next to each other at around the 130th position.

As all sites are under the same hosting package will google realise this and apply the same ranking penalty across all these sites? its just a bit weird that 3 sites are affected on the same keyword?

Thanks again guys
 
Pleasure. Do me a favour, report back here or PM me exactly how long it takes you to recover from the penalty will you?
 
Sure man, will do that's if i ever actually recover haha!
 
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