Expected Time to Recover From an Algorithmic Anchor-Text Backlink Over Optimization Penalty?

Hello,

I write the post knowing that there are other old threads in the same forum but with the doubt that some change has occurred and there may be new information for this case.

I abused the anchor text in exact keyword for one of my projects, reaching unnatural proportions and I experienced a drop in positions in the search keywords. Specifically, 4 months ago I dropped from positions 6-7-8 (where Google had placed me) to positions 15-20. During these last 4 months changes have been made to the SEO of the website, reaching a point where it is superior to the main competitors in the other factors (Speed, UX, Content, etc). The proportion of backlinks with exact keyword anchor text and the fact that positions have been stagnant during these months indicate to me that it may be an algorithmic penalty (I checked GSC and there is nothing manual).

Considering my specific case and that I have started to create new backlinks with other anchor's (generic, naked, branded) and I have made disavow to most domains that pointed me backlinks with exact anchor... How long can I wait to see an increase in search positions? Is my case a mild case (as my keywords have not been deindexed or moved to very distant positions) and therefore I could expect a recovery in a “short” period of time?

In some of the threads I read that it can be solved in weeks? In other media I read that it could take up to 6 months. Considering that Google processes the submitted disavow and the new backlinks are indexed at a relatively fast speed, what time frame could I expect?



Thanks to all and apologies for so many questions,

You dont get penalties for over optimalisation and there aint no such thing as disavow (at Google they were laughing their balls off when they invented this term)
Why do you think links are seen by GSC in just hours, but their value takes weeks to leak. Is the juice a thick substance?
OMG how stupid people can be running after each other with all these BS theories

Frederik Michiel said:

You dont get penalties for over optimalisation and there aint no such thing as disavow (at Google they were laughing their balls off when they invented this term)
Why do you think links are seen by GSC in just hours, but their value takes weeks to leak. Is the juice a thick substance?
OMG how stupid people can be running after each other with all these BS theories

Click to expand...

So what's your opinion about this topic? Is the anchor text of a backlink something completely unrelevant and you can use them as you want?

I'm curious about your opinion

Trima said:

So what's your opinion about this topic? Is the anchor text of a backlink something completely unrelevant and you can use them as you want?

I'm curious about your opinion

Click to expand...

Backlinks have only value by the clicks they get. So anchor text very relevant
Increasing speed is only valuable when your topic requires speed. A gaming site for example.
Why people think loadingspeed is a factor for a contentsite is not clear. When visitors dont recognize the difference between 0,1 and 0,01 seconds, Google wont mind either. But on this aspect again everybody is running after one another.

Trima said:

Hello,

I write the post knowing that there are other old threads in the same forum but with the doubt that some change has occurred and there may be new information for this case.

I abused the anchor text in exact keyword for one of my projects, reaching unnatural proportions and I experienced a drop in positions in the search keywords. Specifically, 4 months ago I dropped from positions 6-7-8 (where Google had placed me) to positions 15-20. During these last 4 months changes have been made to the SEO of the website, reaching a point where it is superior to the main competitors in the other factors (Speed, UX, Content, etc). The proportion of backlinks with exact keyword anchor text and the fact that positions have been stagnant during these months indicate to me that it may be an algorithmic penalty (I checked GSC and there is nothing manual).

Considering my specific case and that I have started to create new backlinks with other anchor's (generic, naked, branded) and I have made disavow to most domains that pointed me backlinks with exact anchor... How long can I wait to see an increase in search positions? Is my case a mild case (as my keywords have not been deindexed or moved to very distant positions) and therefore I could expect a recovery in a “short” period of time?

In some of the threads I read that it can be solved in weeks? In other media I read that it could take up to 6 months. Considering that Google processes the submitted disavow and the new backlinks are indexed at a relatively fast speed, what time frame could I expect?



Thanks to all and apologies for so many questions,

Click to expand...

Building more backlinks with generic/naked/branded is a good way to further fuck up your site.

The combination of exacts, with then branded/naked/generic is like waving a flag "Hey Google! I'm spamming here!"

When do you actually see naked and generic anchors in articles?

"click here and visit them"
"go here"
"this site"

These are CTAs.

Naked anchors likewise are completely unnatural in content. They belong in directories, profiles etc.

Brand anchors, sure, but again, you don't see brand anchors used as much as SEOs without a brand will spam them.

If you're Walmart, then people will say "I was at walmart" and link to walmart.com.

If you are "harrysgoldwatches.com", then people are not going to be linking "I was at harry's gold watches the other day", because people will be like "Who the fuck is Harry?"

They will write something more along the lines "these gold watches I found online".

Your contextual anchors should be natural language based. They can have the brand mentioned sometimes depending on your brand strength, but the natural language should be supporting the brand.

"when searching for gold watches"
"there are sellers of gold watches"
"get a gold watch for your girlfriend"
"they gave him a gold watch"


These are all natural language contextual based anchors and it's how people link in the real world.

People write, and then they go back and add links where appropriate.

Compare an article on a business site talking about when an employee of 20 years retired and the company gave him a gold watch with some spam article that just sticks in "buy gold watch online" or "click here" or worse "you can buy a gold watch from harrysgoldwatches.com"

Hello! I appreciate both answers and perspective on backlinks. I believe that keeping anchor text "natural" makes a lot of sense as you @splishsplash mentioned.

Of course, I'd try to run out of "Recommended" % of each type of anchor as sometimes that looks even more unatural.

I guess it's about diversification and trying to make it look natural depending on each case, but in mine, I have been abusing of that type of exact match anchor text and maybe Google's system warned me somehow (algorithmicaly)

In your experience, have you seen sites get impacted by its anchor text profile?

Trima said:

Hello! I appreciate both answers and perspective on backlinks. I believe that keeping anchor text "natural" makes a lot of sense as you @splishsplash mentioned.

Of course, I'd try to run out of "Recommended" % of each type of anchor as sometimes that looks even more unatural.

I guess it's about diversification and trying to make it look natural depending on each case, but in mine, I have been abusing of that type of exact match anchor text and maybe Google's system warned me somehow (algorithmicaly)

In your experience, have you seen sites get impacted by its anchor text profile?

Click to expand...

Anchor text is relevant because you want people to click on it. Only this. Google doesnt read it. They have something better to do (creating fog around their algorithm ;-) ).