hitsusa - 8:23 pm on Apr 6, 2007 (gmt 0)

Haven't seen anyone mention how closely the SERPs match the results from the search results for "allinanchor:keyword"

Example use: allinanchor:blue widgets

(no need for quotes and left align keyword phrase against colon)

You'll see only a few variations from these results compared with those in the actual SERPs.

I have also experienced a multi hundred page drop before in Google SERPs for many phrases where we'd been at or very near the top.

Very kindly lady at G instructed me to remove multiple keyword variations from nav menu links and site bounced right back to top within a week.

To me, it was a strong indication of an LSI filter being triggered. Nav menu had been in place for years and did not repeat same keyword phrases, but definitely had a lot of LSI overlap as most internal section links were using closely related keyword phrases.

Now same site has much higher rankings (above the fold) for multiple highly competitive single word keywords that it didn't have before.

BTW, keyword phrase density was almost always below 2% before the drop and in some cases well under that.

Bottom line: Fear the LSI filter!

Best secondary advice: Get hundreds more one-way links with plentiful variations on your keywords.

How? Press releases, article submission, and plentiful submissions to SEO friendly directories. Offshore manual services will do 500 submissions with five variations for $85 - it's money well spent!