Recommendation to fix Google backlink anchor text over optimisation filter penalty (auto)
-
Hi guys,
Some of you may have seen a previous question I posted regarding a new client I started working with. Essentially the clients website steadily lost all non domain name keyword rankings over a period of 4-12 weeks, despite content changes and various other improvements. See following::
After further hair pulling and digging around, I realised that the back link anchor text distribution was unnatural for its homepage/root.
From OSE, only about 55/700 of links anchor text contain the clients domain or company name!....8%.
The distribution of the non domain keywords isn’t too bad (most repeated keyword has 142 links out of the 700). This is a result of the client submitting to directories over the last 3 years and just throwing in targeted keywords.
Is my assumption that it is this penalty/filter correct? If it is I guess the lesson is that domain name anchor texts should make up more of your links?
MY QUESTION:
What are some of the effective ways I can potentially remove this filter and get the client ranking on its homepage again?
Ensure all new links contain the company name?
Google said there was no manual penalty, so not sure if there’s any point submitting another reconsideration request?Any advice or effective experiences where a fix has worked would be greatly appreciated!
Also, if we assume company is "www.Bluewidget.com", what would be the best way to link most naturally:
Bluewidget
Blue widget
Blue widget .com
www.bluewidget.com
http://www.bluewidget.com....etcI'm guessing a mix of the above, but if anyone could suggest a hierarchy that would be great.
-
Thanks for the response, that answer from Rand is definitely helpful.
Do you (or anyone else!) have actual experience of this penalty and getting past it?
I guess I'm looking for some positive assurance before I start on backlinking that could potentially not fix anything
-
Hey Hash,
I'd start work on building non-keyword links from good authority sites. You need control over the anchor text so start in the usual places (directories) etc. Rand wrote a good Q&A answer on anchor text variations which is worth reading.
Remeber to build links not only to the homepage but to other pages throughout the site.
Personally, I wouldn't bother with another reconsideration request to Google as the number of link you'll need to build is relatively small.
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
-
How to improve or fix my website ? for an unknown reason bad ranks on Google
Hello, I know that I need to have good quality backlinks, and I am getting backlinks sometime more sometime less. but that is not a problem at this moment i belive. So I am asking someone who can help me and check my website MajorDroid and tells me how can I improve or fix my problem if there is a problem. Because I am very sad when I see this for example: if you search for keyword: oukitel k3 review my website is at page 3, but at same time on page 1 there are only three relevant results, and all other results on page 1 are only partial like OUKITEL K3 Specs Confirmed.... and they are not relevant for users... because they are looking for review. I have the same problem with other keywords also where my page is on second page or third page of Google... and again some other websites with only partial keyword are on first page.... and google claims to offer relevant info for users... now i do not know how google looks my website, or where is the problem ? why quite often my website ranks on second page or third page although competition is not great, and google shows only several relevant results on first page... for example this is review for oukitel k3 I hope you can help me Thank you
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | zgb0 -
Missing Google verification
I just went to check my client sites in Google search console and noticed a whole bunch of them no longer 'verified'. They were all previously verified. Why would they suddenly change status to 'not verified'? Does this affect anything (eg. search analytics data flowing through to GA)? Does this mean I have to verify all over again?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | muzzmoz0 -
Disavow without penalty
Hi fellow Mozians, I have come up with a doubt today which I would appreciate your thoughts on. I have always been convinced that the disavowal tool can be used at any time as part of your backlink monitoring activities- if you see a dodgy backlink coming in you should add it to your disavowal file if you can't get it removed (which you probably can't). That is to say that the disavowal tool can be used pre-emptively to make sure a dodgy link does do your site any harm. However, this belief of mine has taken a bit of a beating this morning as another SEO suggested that the disavowal tool only has en effect if acompanied by a reconsideratiosn request, and that you can only file a reconsideration request if you have some kind of manual action. This logic describes that you can only disavowal when you have a penalty. This theory was backed up by this moz article from May 2013:
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | unirmk
https://mza.seotoolninja.com/blog/google-disavow-tool
The comments didnt do much to settle my doubts. This Mat Cutts video, from November 2013 seems to confirm my belief however:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=86&v=eFJZXpnsRsc It seems perfectly reasonable that Google does allow pre-emptive disavowal-ing, not just because of the whole negative seo issue, but just because nasty links do happen naturally. Not all SEOs spend all their waking hours building links which they know they will have to disavowal later shoudl a penalty hit at some point, and it seems reasonable that an SEO should be able to say- "Link XYZ is nothing to do with me!" before Google excercises retribution. If, for example you get hired working for a company that HAD a penalty due to spammy link building in the past that has been lifted; but you see that Google periodically discovers the occasional spammy link it seems fair that you should be able to tell google that you want to voluntarily remove any "credit" that that link is giving you today, so as to avoid a penalty tomorrow. Your help would be much appreciated. Many thanks indeed. watch?time_continue=86&v=eFJZXpnsRsc0 -
Does Google throttle back the search performance of a penalised website/page after the penalty has been removed?
Hi Mozzers. Back in 2013 my website www.octopus-hr.co.uk was hit by a Penguin 2.0 penalty owing to a harmful backlink profile built by a dodgy SEO consultant (now fired). The penalty seemed to apply to the homepage of the site but other pages were unaffected. We got what links we could removed, disavowed the rest and were informed in September 2013 that the penalty had been removed and our re-inclusion request had been successful. However our website homepage still ranks poorly for the search terms we're targeting in the UK: "HR Software" "HR Systems" On page factors are in my opinion pretty well optimised for these search terms. In terms of link building post penalty we've focused on high authority and relevant sites. I believe that compared to most of our search competitors the back link profile to our homepage is in pretty good shape, however it still ranks badly. Has anyone had any experience of a penalty hangover from Google in the past? Are there other things I should consider? Thanks David
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | OctopusHR0 -
How does Google know if a backlink is good or not?
Hi, What does Google look at when assessing a backlink? How important is it to get a backlink from a website with relevant content? Ex: 1. Domain/Page Auth 80, website is not relevant. Does not use any of the words in your target term in any area of the website. 2. Domain/Page Auth 40, website is relevant. Uses the words in your target term multiple times across website. Which website example would benefit your SERP's more if you gained a backlink? (and if you can say, how much more would it benefit - low, medium, high).
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | activitysuper0 -
Google+ Pages on Google SERP
Do you think that a Google+ Page (not profile) could appear on the Google SERP as a Rich Snippet Author? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | overalia0 -
De-indexed by Google! ?
So it looks as though the content from myprgenie.com is no longer being indexed. Anyone know what happened and what they can do to fix it fast?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | siteoptimized0 -
Internal Anchor Text - Partial or Exact Match Does It Matter?
When linking internally on an ecommerce site between pages and from a sitemap, is partial or exact match on the anchor text a significant factor? If it matters to Google, which is a better practice to use? I found plenty of info on external links, but precious little on internal links (which suggests it doesn't matter enough to worry about).
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AWCthreads0