I read somewhere that if a very very high percentage of my incoming backlinks have my main keyword and only my main keyword in it everytime, it is actually bad for the site. Example: Say 98% of my backlinks have the anchor text of "Baseball Mitts" every time everywhere, then this hurts and doesnt help my site because google sees it as spam. Is this true?
Correct, I've been penalized for over-optimizing for a single keyword. The penalty wasn't too bad, I just lost the ranking for that one target keyword, the rest of my rankings stayed.
what percentange would you estimate is safe? (2 word keyword) you lost the ranking forever?? thats very bad...
This is because natural links from other webmasters would have different anchor texts. If the majority have the exact same text, I think Google will think that you are putting them up yourself, and punish you accordingly.
what do you guys think google would classify as a majority because I really dont want to get penalized
I have not seen that at all. I have several sites that rank well that uses the same anchor text link and no penalty has occurred. I think you can mix up the link and push your site to #1. "Baseball Mitt" "New Baseball mitt" "Used Baseball Mitt" The three ways I showed you is the variety I am talking about. You still use your keyword phrase but have added variety.
when optimizing your site using your keyword as anchor text it should be a combination of major and minor keyword of your niche and most of the time its long tailed keywords especially when the website is new.
yeah! it is really bad for the site! When targeting keyword, try to rumble words and don't focus to only one search term. Like your example, using "baseball mitts" all the time as your anchor text is really bad, over optimizing a keyword would hurt your site.
yes, Google can penalized u r website....... Bcoz Google can thinking you are Using "BLACK HAT SEO" So, don't work hard for only 1 keyword......... keep doing Organic SEO Work..............
organic seo meaning 3-4 longer tailed keyphrases along with main phrase? and what about the sig links that have the same anchor text over and over again?
I don't think google will penalized your site for using same keywords as long as it not too excessive links. But I suggest if you are targeting keywords make different variation, don't focus on one keyword only.
OK guys so if this is true what about all the sig links from forums that target the same keyword loads of times??