Will google slap me for using the same anchor text everywhere?

So if I make like 400 backlinks spread out over time and they all have the same anchor text, are spiders smart enough to care?

If yes what target-keyword/related-keyword ratio is best to use?

If it is a new site then you should diversify your anchor texts. Otherwise it will look unnatural to the search engines. The key is try to make your link building as natural as possible. It doesn't hurt to have anchors to other keywords that are closely related.

My recommendation:

75% of anchors - keyword exact

20% of anchors - keyword related

5% of anchors - urls / random


I don't think you need to dip below 75% with your exact anchors. In my experience, Google's algorithm doesn't seem to see a red flag when this strategy is used. To be honest, 90% is probably ok.

The benefit of using the above method is that you will be gaining traffic with search queries that you would never have expected. Long tail anchor text also benefits the keywords in the phrase so that is another way to fix it up.

It is an ideal opportunity to boost your rank on the low traffic terms that require little promotion but all add up in the end. Use Google webmaster tools to find some of the variations that are getting you some impressions in the search engine but are still ranked too low for clicks. You can use these for related anchor text and the extra backlinks will push them into the range where they will get some click-throughs.