gouri - 7:45 pm on Jun 26, 2012 (gmt 0)

If Google is now taking it as a sign of trying to gain the system, they are missing the mark. I'm not saying it's impossible they are wrong, I'm just saying that talks of over-optimization of anchor text may have a merit but not when the anchor phrase is the same as <title> and/or <h1>.

But could having your target phrase in a page's title tag, h1 tag and as the anchor text in an internal link from another page on the site going to that page be seen as being to aggressive in trying to rank for the phrase?

I think that this is the way that many SEOs would go about trying to rank for a phrase but now Google is saying that by having some variety, you are showing that you want to rank for the phrase and, at the same time, you are not overdoing it.