Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Your Experience with Exact Match Anchor Text Penalties
-
Hi Moz community!
I was wondering if anyone has ever seen a site penalized or dampened because of too many exact match anchor links or know of any examples.
I don't want to be overly concerned about it if it is a low risk.
Thanks!
-
JC Pennys got in trouble for this. Matt Cutts manually deranked them:
Just don't overdo your act. Throw in variations of the keyword. Try and make it look more natural.
Also, use your Google Analytics to find keywords that may actually be converting at a higher rate.
-
I don't have examples that I could share in a QA Forum, but think from Google's Webspam team perspective. Artificial SERP manipluation in indeed a big problem for them. Think about the Whitehouse Google Bomb (Bush's Miserable Failure Search). It's just too easy to detect and not worth the risk. It all depends site to site, depending upon a site's link profile history and age.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Do You Risk A Penalty From Local Paid Directories in 2022?
Hi there, I have a client who wants to advertise in a local directory along the lines of "find your nearest plumber". The directory only has paid listings and they are follow links and they also mention your site or generated landing page may get a nice bump on google. Is there a risk that they may get a penalty for using this directory? The client wants to use it regardless of if it gives them an SEO boost but obviously wants to avoid any penalties at all costs. Thoughts on this? Thanks in advance
Link Building | | Scottlinklater0 -
Exact Domain Match does it help or distract?
Does owning / buying an exact domain match help or not necessary? For example our main website ranks for nearly 14,800 Keywords but one KW we are trying to get in the top spot for we are currently at the bottom of page #1. We do see an exact domain match available so we purchased it but i don't know if it would actually help us or distract us. I was thinking we could create an article about the keyword on that exact domain then do some on page seo and back linking. But would that be more of a distraction VS. just focusing on getting more high quality back links to the main website we have ranked on Page 1 at the bottom? Any ideas or benefits to use an exact domain match to help boost also?
Link Building | | Cfarcher0 -
Naked link anchors or long tail anchors ?
Hi, Do naked link anchors such as "www.mysite.com/my-category" have the same SEO power as long tails anchors? What about the UX which such anchors? Lately a site published our back-to-school article with this horrible naked link anchor, it does not look friendly to me as a reader, but I am wondering whether I should bother, how important it is for google and for readers? Thank you in advance. Isabelle
Link Building | | isabelledylag0 -
What is the difference between anchor text and external links?
I understand you 'Pro's' may fins this a silly question. But I'm a visual learner and I can't seem to grasp this. I've read the pages MOZ has provided on anchor text and external links and my question is, how are they different? And which one is more important to seo? Can someone who has a great ability to simplify things, please help me understand this. They seem very similar to me but, I know there has to be more to it. External links: External Links are hyperlinks that point at (target) any domain other than the domain the link exists on (source) **Anchor Text: **Anchor text is the visible characters and words that hyperlinks display when linking to another document or location on the web. Thanks is advance, Lauren.
Link Building | | MissThumann0 -
Total Exact Match Anchor Text Percentage or a Few High Quality Exact Match Backlinks, which is better?
Hello, I was wondering if anyone could help me. I am trying to rank a web page for a competitive regional search term. Upon inspecting all the competitors’ backlinks they appear to using an overly high exact match anchor text to rank on the first page for this keyword. Somewhere in the region of 15 – 55% exact match anchor text. So the question is what does big G provide a heavier weighting for, A.) The total percentage of exact match anchor text for all your backlinks, until it reaches the point of over optimization. A higher percentage up to about 60% will help you rank in the top 3. Meaning I should change a 1,000+ backlinks on multiple domains to the exact match anchor text. B.) Or just a few backlinks with the exact match anchor text but from really high quality domains with a ‘Majestic SEO’ Trust and Citation Flow above 40. Any help would be appreciated, exact match anchor text is meant not to work but it still does.
Link Building | | tomfifteen0 -
Content toggle, tabs ad accordion for seo text
Hello there, I have two questions. 1. I want to ad seo text in content toggles, tabs and accordions. does Google robots view as seo text , eg, H1 text as it would be written direct on the page? 2. About Pinguin and link building. I am seeing up an onlineprintshop, where any industry can become a client. Lets say a medical company will be our client for prints. If they link back to our onlineprint page does Goole evaluates the link as a link from a related industry. Thanks for your kind answer. Kind Regards Mike 8bMCt
Link Building | | niceguyseo0 -
Links under Rich Snippet Text?
I was curious how certain sites have links under their rich snippet texts? is it from google authorship? iaNqX.jpg
Link Building | | Modbargains0 -
How to Beat Exact Match Domains
Hi all, Has anyone got any particular methods for beating exact match domains in the SERP's? I've got a stronger link profile than the 7 results ranking above me, but cant seem to get anywhere in the SERP. I'm thinking: links with keyword anchor text aggressive on page optimisation more links Any ideas/experiences you've had would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance James
Link Building | | jamesjackson0