Google Penguin 2.1 slap due to internal links - suggested actions?

[sekarsundaram]

Actually based on the latest google penguin 2.1 update we got a keyword ranking dip for all the keywords & links were not in the top. Before it was in the top rankings for the most of the keywords.

We have found the below 3 reasons:

1. we are having internal links for the inner pages within the content of the site.

example:

* keywords are same but internal links are different.

2. We are having site wide links in the left side for all the key pages with the targeting keywords.

3. Mistakenly we have changed the meta tags for the pages recently. But we have updated the old meta tags again.

We need a solution and Internal link optimization checklist to get back the keyword ranking for those pages.

Also i have a doubt shall we change the keyword phrases and target the same links which are in the left site wide pages?

Thanks in advance.

[Simsi]

I'd say No. 1 is potentially your main culprit. Or it's a combination of very repetitive anchor text across the whole site. It's unlikely to just be the sidebar navigation IMO as this is too common and it won't be the META tags as the only one that aids ranking is the TITLE tag and even that is getting less relevant it seems.

Also, are you sure it's Penguin? I once got slapped by the algo for having too many internal links using the same anchor text long before Penguin and after re-assessing the links so they made more sense in natural English, the rankings came back naturally (took several months though).

I'd say it is most likely to do with using the same anchor text to different pages which is confusing Google - or rather, telling Google the pages are too similar.

[Ralph_Slate]

Why would that be a penalty? If the links are on different pages, that seems perfectly reasonable, because the page sets the context of the link.

[JD_Toims]

What you're describing as links is fairly standard internal link structure web-wide, so I'd start looking at other issues, unless you're way out of line with things but in that case you would likely know exactly what to change to fix it and not need to ask.

Meta tags are for the most part nothing, except to meta search engines. A couple of tags are used by search engines other than Google to a larger degree than Google uses them, but you're not going to tank your site by changing meta tags unless you stuffed them so full of keywords you broke that portion algo or something lol

Bottom Line: I'd look at other issues.

[mihomes]

I am interested to hear more thoughts on number one as well. I recently had a site tank, what I feel is for other reasons, but it also coincided with a complete design overhaul.

Part of the design was pages with the same internal anchor text for each product such as features, awards, questions, purchase, etc. They all point to different urls, but the naming structure is the same for every product. I surely hope this wouldn't trigger a penalty as the link naming makes it the easiest to understand and navigate for the user - which Google stresses.

I honestly never thought that could be a problem, but would like to hear opinions on that as well.

[sekarsundaram]

Thanks all for your reply.

Here I want to specify for the point 1:

Example: Widgets - Keywords

We have used the same keyword widgets(3 times) and the links are different. Is it right or whether I need to remove the links for this keyword widget.

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Actually here the point 3 is we have changed the Title & Meta Tags mistakenly and then we changed the old tags again.

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After Google Penguin update, whats your suggestions & checklist for the sites having more internal links? How to fix it?

Thanks in advance.