Test for ranking better - and ranking went down

[member22]

I did a test on one of my website in order to rank better and here is what occured...

I have a website that use to rank on the 3 rd page of google for a 2 word keyword I am targeting. I wanted to rank it on the 1 st page and what I did is created a lots of links with the exact anchor text I want to rank for and instead of getting a better ranking it got worse...
I went from page 3 to page 8 for this 2 word keyword I am targeting..

However on all my other keywords I rank better... so it doesn't seem that I have a side wide penalty I just did something wrong but can't figure what it is ...

My question : Do you guys think it is due to the anchor text where i have way too many times the keyword I want to rank for or do you think it is due to the quality of the links I got ?

[goodroi]

google is not stupid. they know that we know that links are important. in order to protect the serps from being overly manipulated google has penalty filters. if you overoptimize like getting "lots of links with the exact anchor text" google is going to whack you. no legitimate webmaster is going to get many links with exact anchor text. you need to diversify and make your link profile look more natural.

[chrisv1963]

Did you create internal links or links from other sites to your website?

[aakk9999]

I guess these were links from other sites to member22's site as member22 said:

or do you think it is due to the quality of the links I got ?

The question, however, is - what if a competitor did this to you? Seems awfully easy way to knock the site down in ranking. I think this is where the trust of the site is paramount - as I believe it can protect to a degree from this happening.

[brotherhood of LAN]

exact anchor text

You will want to vary this. Think of how a site would 'naturally' get links, some list the domain, some the domains home page title, some 'click here' etc.

[minnapple]

I believe that you can lose rank due to certain type of linking methods.

There is definitely something more complex going on within g's algo in relation to the weight and affect of an inbound link on determining the positioning of the target page.

I truly believe a positive linking technique for improving SE results for one keyword phrase, can be net neutral or negative for another keyword phrase.

Lately, using the anchor mixing technique, as a fix to problem rankings, has been for the most part, unsuccessful and just a waste of time.

Once again there is something more complex going on within g's algo.

It all goes back to old school method of SEO.
Search for the keyword phrase you want to rank for.
Record the top 20 sites that rank for the phrase.

Ignore the big guys.

Do research on the other guys, and find out what is working for them, and replicate that to the best of your abilities.

New school is that it is much more phrase dependent, and not as much site dependent.

[member22]

Thank you for your replies and from reading what you all say it seems that the quality of th links is not the main issue because as your are not suppose to control those google cannot penalize you ... which seems right to me.

However, you seem to say that the exact anchor text could trigger a filter which i would agree no the question is what is the perecentage of exact anchor text that google wants.. because i have over 200 % of my links with the exact anchor text now i am down to about 45 % and there is still no change in ranking for that 2 word keyword I am targeting...

So what should I do ? keep finding quality links and varying the anchor text until i get to the percentage google likes or should i change some of the anchor text i have on some of my current links ?

[BenFox]

So what should I do ? keep finding quality links and varying the anchor text until i get to the percentage google likes or should i change some of the anchor text i have on some of my current links ?

I wouldn't. Google's also going to be looking at a lot of different link based and anchor based metrics to determine where you rank so even if your rankings start to rise it wouldn't necessarily be because you've sorted out the perfect ratio of anchor texts.

My advice would be to shore up your traffic on that keyphrase with some [extra?] PPC and move on to another project for a few weeks. Come back to it with a fresh head and see if it's self healed - if not then do a complete audit of the page, it's link profile and try to pinpoint where it went wrong.

[tristanperry]

Sounds simply like the Google Dance.

I used to post a fair amount on some forums which talk about link building a lot, and there's two key points really:

1) When link building, consistency is key (which seems odd since natural links wouldn't be consistently achieved, but there we go). If you just created loads of backlinks and then stopped, Google will probably see right through this. Which is why it's recommended that you build backlinks slowly but surely.

2) When you start building backlinks, your Google rankings will jump around loads. One moment they might be page 2, then page 30, then page 15, then page 1 (etc). This is called the Google Dance. After a while the rankings should/will settle down.

And whilst you would think that you could be penalized for too many of the same anchor text in the backlinks, various tests have been run which seem to point out that this isn't the case (which is again weird since you'd think that the same anchor text would be a sign of a link builder).

So yeah, this sounds like the Google Dance; something which is normal enough, c.f. a penalty.

[member22]

I know what the google dance is and there is no way this is it !

Then as far as consistency for links this is so wrong I checked all my competitors and none have consistency and some do rank extremely well.

I think we are all looking for complicated stuffed for ranking but I do think google is very dumb and can't do much compare to what we think it can do... it is getting better but it is not that super smart computer everyone talks about... it is a machine...

Just read articles about what we were predicting 20 years ago on how we would leave in 2000 and here we are in 2011 and we still use cars with wheels and no flying cars or all that crazy stuff...

[scooterdude]

Nowadays, it seems that all detectable SEO work by sites not considered authority or Brandname by google is penalised instantly.

[FranticFish]

The thing is though, I've seen sites hammering away on exact phrases that are ranking fine - and not with 'good' links either. The most recent in a niche I monitor came from nowhere to practically the top with fairly indiscriminate link exchange, links from fake blogs and directories - within the past few months. High volume, done fast, completely blatant - and working well.

Can you post a few more specifics? What sort of links did you get? More than one type? Were any paid for? Directories?

[member22]

I agree with you you can rank very well with exact phrases anchor text but only on keywords that are not too competitive... meaning you have your anchor text a 100 times on a 3 word keyword and you will rank it in the 1 st 5 links and this happened to me.

However when you try to rank on 2 word keyword or 1 one keyword you cannot do that it won't work, unless you repeat your keyword 2000 times in the anchor text but google knows it is virtually impossible to get 2000 links with the anchor text in any industry ...

No paid links, no directories, just blogs and websites or magazine in my industry....

The only thing is that I have some links on webpages that say www.webpages.com/links and my concern was that google considered the www.webpage.com/links has a bad link but apparently it doesn't ( it seems logical because google cannot penalize you for links ) and in fact my ranking got better on some keywords even with the www.webpages.com/links I got.

So the issue is somewhere else...

[rowtc2]

I am pretty sure there are filters for individual pages for unnatural things (links, keyword density).

Also, i think is depending too by the authority of domain, i saw websites of big companies (made for ads) over-optimized on-page without a problem, trying to make on-page (anchor text, keyword density) like them attract filters. I think is not correct, but this is the situation.

[member22]

I agree but why wouldn't I be penalized for some keywords ...

Ex : I am penalized for "Green widget " but not for " Best green widget "