Marcia - 2:50 pm on Dec 1, 2008 (gmt 0)

anyone tried this problem on other internal pages and not just home page?

I won't usually cross-post to two threads, but in this case posting one from the yo-yo thread is appropriate, since it applies to excessive anchor text and interior pages on a site rather than the homepage, as was asked about:

I've just seen a site "yo-yo" up to #15-16 from languishing at down around 60-ish (and lower) for a long time, after it had been at #15-20 for a couple of years. It's unmistakeably because of an offending factor being removed from the site, and it's been holding fast at its current 16-ish position for a couple of weeks now. It was an internal anchor text issue that I fought long and hard to have changed; and when it finally was, it took around a week (give or take a little, not 100% certain since I didn't check daily) to rebound. Clarification: Excessive anchor text had been added preceding the drop - and it was an interior page, not the homepage, that was affected. Excessive internal anchor text started to appear to be an issue around the time of the Florida update, and IMHO it's one of the primary over-optimization factors to look at; I'm still convinced of it, and it's not at all uncommon among DIY SEO'ing, from what I've seen.

That site ranks super-fine for its "star" keyword phrases - for the homepage - but does not for interior pages and other keyphrases for anything near half-way competitive, and I continue to remain convinced that it's because of site-wide interior linking, including a mega-menu (fully meshed navigation with 105+ links on the homepage - plus additional instances of problematic anchor text on pages), including more than one link to the same page(s) with different anchor text in the same menu and on the same pages; and way excessive keyword repetition, to boot.

[edited by: Marcia at 3:01 pm (utc) on Dec. 1, 2008]