Can Anchor Text Ever Get Irrelevant? The SEO industry is always filled with surprises, some of which are more shocking than others. But along with these challenges are rumors that spread through the industry, based on wild guesses or short-sighted observations about the seemingly unexpected changes that take place whenever an algorithmic update is launched by Google.
Poor Anchor Text Diversity Penalized
One popular rumor is that anchor text is no longer relevant. The origin of this idea was the Google Penguin algorithmic update of April 2012. While the Penguin update was initially categorized as a move by Google to penalize overoptimization, it was then observed to impact websites that did not have good diversity in that they were employing the exact same link text again and again in links that point back to the site. This was something that Google’s couldn’t accept as it was an indication that rankings were being fabricated with the same keyword again and again in a link text from some external website.