How much to Vary Link Text after Allegra Update?

Now that it seems that the Allegra update has come down hard on identical link text does anybody know of any tips or techniques of how to vary link text while at the same time still targeting keyphrases?

 

What evidence do you have that identical link text is being penalized?

I wrote a very simple script last year that added random prefix text to anchor text. I ran it for several months and it did not appear to have any effect.

Here is a version of the script:

#!/usr/bin/perl

#====================== Edit ============================

$basedir="";

@pretext = ("Learn more about",
"Discover",
"Check out",
"Visit",
"Learn about",
"Explore",
"Find out about"
);



#====================== Done ============================

srand($$ & time ^ $$);
$pretextnum = rand(@pretext);

print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";

$pretextnum = rand(@pretext);
print "<a href=http://www.gsm-security.net>\n";
print "@pretext[$pretextnum] \n";
print "GSM Security\n";
print "<\/a><br>\n";

$pretextnum = rand(@pretext);
print "<a href=http://www.sansecurity.com>";
print "@pretext[$pretextnum] \n";
print "SAN (Storage Area Network) Security";
print "<\/a><br>\n";

$pretextnum = rand(@pretext);
print "<a href=http://www.enterprisestoragemanagement.com>";
print "@pretext[$pretextnum] \n";
print "Enterprise Storage Management";
print "<\/a><br>\n";

$pretextnum = rand(@pretext);
print "<a href=http://www.entrepreneur-support.com>";
print "@pretext[$pretextnum] \n";
print "Entrepreneur Support";
print "<\/a><br>\n";

$pretextnum = "";

Code (markup):

 

Sorry if I was not clear but I meant link text in backlinks to your website. Having the same link text in all of your directory submissions will not have the same effect as it once had. I think this explains why so many people noticed a drop in rankings during the update.

 

I've noticed this effect.
I noticed that as I deleted my keywords from the coop the pages started climbing up...it was so strange. it was the opposite effect. But I then realized that gogole was taking a sort of penalization for that pages that have tons of backlins with the same anchor text above all if into few time.
I started adding some similar anchor texts (I made 3 similar keywords for each keyword) and I noticed improvements.

 

I alawys try to vary around 4-5 different keyword phrases. Sometimes people change this themselves when linking to me and I just leve it. It tends to make IBLs look more natrual.

 

I am thinking that having 3 or more variations to your inbound link text is a good plan just to play it safe with Google and all their fun filters.

 

It would be an interesting experiment to try and find out if varying the anchor text of your backlinks make any difference to your SERP's.

No doubt TOPS will have an opinion on this 1.

 

I like organic food.

Just like natural stuff is good for you, so is natural linking good for your site. If you had a hit with a website and everybody in the world knew about it and started linking to you naturally on their own initiative... What sort of anchor text variation would you end up with? A couple of 'click here', 'this website', 'yourdomain.com', 'blue widget', 'small blue widget', 'fantastic blue widget sold by company x from xyz' and other anchor text variations. Then add the correct ones in large quantity on top of this and you'll be just fine.

That's my opinion.

 

I suppose you have to look at it from the point of view that the Search Engines want as realistic results as possible... therefor they have to display results which ring true for what are the most popular sites.

It would be nice to have some concrete evidence though...

I reckon the recip linking will start getting penalised as well as it is all too easy to recognise them.

 

I think that varying a keyword is useful not only to make links more natural but also to target more keywords...if I have to make some variation I'd add something that would be more specific of my site thus having a different but still much more descriptive anchor. This is my humble opinion. I'm not a pro.

 

SEO-Ireland:

You might not have caught the purpose of this script.

The purpose of this script is to modify the anchor text of outbound links -- which are then inbound links to the other site.

This is for sites which cross-link to each other.

 

Hi Will, thanks for clearing it up. I find it hard to see its use for SEO purposes. I understand its benefit for making links look fresh with each page reload but other then that what is its exact purpose for SEO?

 

I'd guess he wouldn't use the script to dynamically generate links in webpages, but more as a helper ap to generate links on static pages.... though he'd know what he means better than I do