potentialgeek - 5:06 pm on Sep 1, 2007 (gmt 0)

I changed the keyword Widgeting to Widgets. My site has always stayed on the first page of results for this keyword. Now today, I find it at the 850 mark.... Some of these pages also have Amazon text links on them, so this may also be a factor.

I'm not convinced keyword changes or anchor text modification necessarily is considered evil by Google. In recent months I changed five-year-old internal navigation links, including Keyword 1 Keyword 2 to Keyword 2, and the SERPs are about the same.

I did this for consistency in the top navigation bar, so each link is a single word (so many categories fit in a single line).

I believe it's more likely for Google to suspect overoptimization if you're doing something else besides adjusting navigation link anchor text. I suspect Google engineers are smart enough to realize not all anchor text changes are done to game the system.

Let's face it. A lot of websites could use a makeover now and then in both visual design and nav links.

p/g