How important is anchor text variation for backlinks? It occurs to me that for your most important keywords; there is a very limited amount of variations you can do. Does anyone know if google is that picky about anchor text variation ? -
the anchor text variation should be done in order to avoid spamming. moreover, the variations in anchor text will help you to rank for different keywords.
google definitely have a bunch of statistical tests they perform - mostly based on the fact that they 'sample' the entire web, so they can tell what's "normal" and what isn't. If your site ONLY has 10,000 backlinks with 3 anchor word variations, it's going to draw attention.You can even throw in a few 'click here' or 'here' or the url itself to make it more natural.
agree with what others posted, google would know if something fishy is happening. go ahead with anchor text variation but keep it related to what your site is or what your targeted keywords are
That is the best option of using anchor text for your backlinks as your site's keywords, so focus only on some of your main keywords only. The variation is the most important part when you use anchor texts
Let me put it this way: What probability is there that if a lot of people (say, a couple of thousand) they all use exactly the same keyword? Linking should look natural, as if it came from many different sources, otherwise search engines won't be fooled...
Let's take Google out of the mix for a moment to consider the question of what seems natural vs. anything else that could appear as "manipulation." If you had 100 links pointing to your site that all read the same thing "link to site." That would seem a bit odd...perhaps...but let me play devil's advocate for a moment here...When you introduce yourself to people, you don't tell them a different name every time do you? No...you say..."hi, my name is Jim and I'm a plumber." So everyone knows you as "Jim the plumber." With that said, I don't think it's "TOO" unnatural for some sites to have the vast majority of their anchor text be the same key word or key phrase. However, now that people know you as "Jim the plumber," they don't all introduce you to others the same way do they? Nope...someone may say..."this is Jim, he's a plumber". Someone else may introduce you as "the best plumber in the world, Jim." Anyway, getting to the point you will see that when YOU are in control of the introduction....it's always the same....and when others are in control....it tends to not be the same. Variation is an indication of organic growth. Even though there will be variation, simple statistics dictate that there will be the vast majority of links (introductions) that will be virtually the same. To wrap it all up, I think Google may spend some effort analyzing this data in order to get smarter, but as far as them being able to pin point who's manipulating back links goes...I'm not so sure they're quite there 100% so I wouldn't spend too much time stressing over it. As far as getting your site to rank for different keywords, I would weight your anchor text very highly for your major keyword (say in the 80% range) and the rest you can mix up if you so desire. Good luck!