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Is changing anchor text too many times bad?

by john5171
8 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I am experimenting with different anchor texts on 1 money site from around 10 PR sites, does it damage my rankings if ALL the anchor texts change to that 1 site (around once a month)?

Because my ranking dropped and I am not sure if it is the anchor text or the act of me changing it.

Thanks,
#anchor #bad #changing #text #times
  • Profile picture of the author Steve Waller
    It's an interesting question. I've changed a handful of anchor texts before but I normally stagger the changes a little bit (whether this makes any difference or not I don't know).

    It begs the question as to whether Google use historical comparisons or whether their rankings are primarily about the here and now. I suspect it is mostly the latter with temporal ranking factors being limited to link velocity.

    I say this because otherwise Google have to store copies of how the internet looked at any one point in time and while I know they are a data company, I'm not sure this would be practical given the rate of growth.
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    • Profile picture of the author paulgl
      Do you mean you take the links you have, and change those each month?

      If so, of course it's going to affect your rankings. You want to rank for "A" and
      now you are linking as "B"? Then you change that to "C"?

      Or do you mean you build links and just vary the anchor in a round robin
      fashion? If so, there's no need to do that. It could affect your rankings if
      you outdid yourself on one that made no sense.

      Paul
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      • Profile picture of the author john5171
        Thanks for the replies.

        Originally Posted by paulgl View Post

        Do you mean you take the links you have, and change those each month?

        If so, of course it's going to affect your rankings. You want to rank for "A" and
        now you are linking as "B"? Then you change that to "C"?

        Or do you mean you build links and just vary the anchor in a round robin
        fashion? If so, there's no need to do that. It could affect your rankings if
        you outdid yourself on one that made no sense.

        Paul
        Paul I mean I change the anchor text ratio and I try to under/over optimize it for my main keyword.

        Would Google keep a history?

        Also, how long does it usually take until I see changes in rankings after I changed the keyword variation?
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  • Profile picture of the author dgui123451
    If your SEO strategies are dependant on your anchor text, its time you changed your strategy because Google has already announced (on Matt Cutts Blog) that anchor texts are no longer going to be considered important.
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  • Profile picture of the author sweezeter
    That just screams unnatural, and more than likely could cause damage to your private network or sites you are using that are high PR.

    How natural is it for a webmaster to go in and update anchor texts for links they've already placed?
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  • Profile picture of the author SEOJerry
    Google is smart than you think. If you are changing the anchor text it is telling Google straight up that you are trying to rank for these words. Google does not want people trying to rank for specific words, they want you to naturally rank for them. Of course most everyone does it, but if you are making it obvious that you are trying to unnaturally rank for words Google will rank you lower.
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    • Profile picture of the author nik0
      Banned
      I suppose they just have a database where your anchor ratio's are stored and which gets updated.

      While at the same time taking recent activity into account, for example you can have 1000 different anchors and your next 100 anchors are all the same then it could be that they punish you for that as it's not natural to get 100 links in a row with all the same anchor.

      I think you have to look at it like that, just makes most sense to me.
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    • Profile picture of the author ConsultJoseph
      Originally Posted by dgui123451 View Post

      If your SEO strategies are dependant on your anchor text, its time you changed your strategy because Google has already announced (on Matt Cutts Blog) that anchor texts are no longer going to be considered important.
      Wait, what? I saw that vid and he nowhere implied that the anchor texts are no longer important. He was merely speaking to the possible future changes and its decrease in importance. Anchor texts will ALWAYS remain to be one of the major factors.

      Originally Posted by sweezeter View Post

      That just screams unnatural, and more than likely could cause damage to your private network or sites you are using that are high PR.

      How natural is it for a webmaster to go in and update anchor texts for links they've already placed?
      It depends on what sites were placed. Generally, serious webmasters update anchor texts for links almost all the time (change DOFOLLOWs/NOFOLLOWs regularly, update anchor texts for sentence fluidity, etc.)

      Originally Posted by SEOJerry View Post

      Google is smart than you think. If you are changing the anchor text it is telling Google straight up that you are trying to rank for these words. Google does not want people trying to rank for specific words, they want you to naturally rank for them. Of course most everyone does it, but if you are making it obvious that you are trying to unnaturally rank for words Google will rank you lower.
      You are giving Google WAY WAY more credit that it deserves. It's an algorithm, not a high IQ brain.

      To the OP:

      Change the anchor texts all you want but the problem is if your data is unreliable. For example, what do you do to get an accurate look of your anchor text diversity? MajesticSEO? Ahrefs? You have to remember that their data is NEVER the same as Google. They simply are playing catch up.

      With that regard, if you follow rigorously the % seen in your checkers then keep in mind that they are only estimates. With that being said, my suggestion would be to focus more on building high PR links targeting more natural/branded anchor texts in order to dillute the existing anchor text profile rather than changing things up.

      Have fun.
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