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"Overcooking" Keywords and Pegnuin Question - Please Help

by The Oilman
12 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hello
I was hit by penguin on the 24th of April and my life has basically been rough since.

I've done a lot of research on it... but still cna't find good answers.

But my biggest question is this:

Lets say you have a site for dog food. Lets say its dogfood.com

Lets say that dog food is your #1 money term, and you had too many dog food exact match anchor texts, and penguin hit you.

Does this mean that its GOOD to build links that are BROAD match that contain the keyword, such as:

cheap dog food
great dog food
a great site for dog food
organic dog food tips

It is that BAD? I've heard both sides of the story.

I realize one must also be diluting and building 'click here' and mostly brand style links....

Its just so many factors at play it gets a bit complicated sometimes.

If someone could please help me with this it would be great.
#keywords #overcooking #pegnuin #question
  • Profile picture of the author Robaski
    I am no expert but creating backlinks that contain the "raw url" can also dillute the amount of exact anchor text keywords you are targeting. For example creating links with the url: dogfood.com or dogfood.com/cheapdogfood ( you have to add the www suffix of course or the http suffix if you don't use www)

    From what I have read on the subject it is wise to have no more than 25% of your backlinks contain the exact money term you are targeting, but to my experience you don't have to be that precise. Hope this helps
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  • Profile picture of the author ConnorMcCreesh
    The recent updates tend to like one page targeted to one keyword, so try to do that and have different but related keyword one your other pages.

    As for being hit, try some more social integration. If you can make your content quality, and appealing, and prompt people to share (as well as making it easy for them to share), you will get automatic backlinks that Google loves.
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  • Profile picture of the author The Oilman
    Anyone else have any words on this?
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  • Profile picture of the author jazbo
    broad match, related and generic terms - mix it all up.

    "food for dogs"
    "great meal option for your pooch"

    think natural.
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  • Profile picture of the author dp40oz
    Its really not very difficult. Don't focus on keyword anchor text and you'll be fine. You want to build links with the site title and the site URL. You also want to build links that look natural. Stop thinking about whats right and think about what would be a natural way to link and you'll be on the right track post penguin. Linking to your page with the same keyword specific anchor text has gone the way of VHS tapes and 8 Tracks. Its all about focusing the link juice to your page, and you can use your internal anchors to direct the "focus" of that juice. Google is smart. They'll figure it out and you won't look spammy.
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  • Profile picture of the author The Oilman
    Thanks for everyones answers.

    dp40oz. I agree with what you've said.

    I too have thought of this before...

    Maybe G doens't care about internal linking? I mean, as we all know heavy-optimization OFFSITE is now a big no no. But perhaps ONSITE its actually GOOD? (beside anchor text)

    Of course after penguin hit I scaled down my sites with keyword density and internal anchor text...

    But I read something recently which made me believe that maybe they WANT us to do a lot of onsite anchors.?

    I mean, originally I had about 100 articles on my site, maybe more, and each linked back to the home page with an anchor.. but I removed all of this.... should I maybe put it back?

    I swear I read somewhere that they have a guide out that tells you do to onsite inner anchor texting..

    Thoughts?
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    • Profile picture of the author Juvv2096
      ive read that if you have a url on heaps of pages specifically pointing to a certain page, it could have a negative effect. its whats known as link juice sculpting. basically just making shitloads of pages, getting them indexed and pointing them to your page of choice can boost the page.
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      • Profile picture of the author Nicole7575
        Great thread OP & it's evident you have a fine grasp over SEO best practices already.

        IMHO, everyone (including me) is as confused as yourself and maybe Google likes to keep things fuzzy on the Penguin front.

        I typically try to mitigate the risks by comparing anchor text distribution of the Top 10 ranking URL's with my site for head terms.

        If you're a LONG term player, the gold standard is always: Can the backlink profile pass a Google human quality rater / reviewer's check?
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    • Profile picture of the author dp40oz
      Originally Posted by The Oilman View Post

      Thanks for everyones answers.

      dp40oz. I agree with what you've said.

      I too have thought of this before...

      Maybe G doens't care about internal linking? I mean, as we all know heavy-optimization OFFSITE is now a big no no. But perhaps ONSITE its actually GOOD? (beside anchor text)

      Of course after penguin hit I scaled down my sites with keyword density and internal anchor text...

      But I read something recently which made me believe that maybe they WANT us to do a lot of onsite anchors.?

      I mean, originally I had about 100 articles on my site, maybe more, and each linked back to the home page with an anchor.. but I removed all of this.... should I maybe put it back?

      I swear I read somewhere that they have a guide out that tells you do to onsite inner anchor texting..

      Thoughts?
      Optimizing your onpage anchors is always a good move. Google has always tried to educate people on doing this. Now of course they don't want you to exploit this sort of thing solely for ranking purposes but if you're site is quality then by all means make your interlinking target the proper anchors.

      Ive been very much preaching these days and have seen great results from branded anchors. By "branded" anchors I mean the site title, the URL's, and variations on the site title and description as your anchor text. Its mostly about bringing in the link juice. Don't stress targeting your anchors too much. Just build links, have a quality website with good internal linking and you should see good results. Penguin doesn't need to be brilliant to be able to spot link building with highly optimized anchor text thats unnatural. Its probably very easy to do.

      All of this is gonna be a lot tougher though if the site was previously penalized. Im a big believer in, once its been penalized let it go. But I understand not everyone can do that.
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  • Profile picture of the author ChrisMoon
    Mix up your anchor text, don't have them all the same.
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    GreyGable

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  • Profile picture of the author dadamson
    Yes, your anchor text should be varied greatly in every shape and form.

    Adding new words such as "great.." and "best..." are ok but you also need to mix it up. Not every keyword has to have "dog food" within it, just keep in generally on topic. As suggested above, words like "pooch" and "meal" are great ideas to improve the variety of your anchor text.

    Also concentrate on alternating between cases, such as "Dog Food", "Dog food", and "dog food, as well as doing this for all keywords.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sclark
    Originally Posted by The Oilman View Post

    Does this mean that its GOOD to build links that are BROAD match that contain the keyword, such as:
    cheap dog food
    great dog food
    a great site for dog food
    organic dog food tips
    In my experience, it's just as bad as using "dog food" for an anchor text.
    Originally Posted by dp40oz

    Its really not very difficult. Don't focus on keyword anchor text and you'll be fine.
    I just realized that's what I've been doing!
    Originally Posted by The Oilman View Post

    I mean, originally I had about 100 articles on my site, maybe more, and each linked back to the home page with an anchor.. but I removed all of this.... should I maybe put it back?
    As dp40oz said, don't focus on internal linking, focus on improving user experience. That's the way to go. So, yes, I'd bring those links back if they improve user experience and actually lead to related and helpful posts/pages.
    Originally Posted by dp40oz

    All of this is gonna be a lot tougher though if the site was previously penalized. Im a big believer in, once its been penalized let it go. But I understand not everyone can do that.
    This is what I believe, too. Once you get hit by Penguin or get a manual penalty, there are two options as far as I've noticed. You can either go on building links - chances are Google will restore your rankings. If not, you will have to clean up all the mess and at least most of it. Only then will anything change for the better.
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