Google Penguin And Keyword-Rich Internal Links | Does This Affect Ranking?

This has been a huge question for webmasters and business owners since the launch of Google Penguin.

The message that went out from Google was quite clear “too many text links to your website using the same keyword-rich link text would harm your website”.

Google have answered one key aspect here – the internal text links – those links within your site that point internally (maybe even your main navigation system).

The question asked was “Do internal website links with exact match keyword anchor text hurt a website? These links help our users navigate our website properly. Are too many internal links with the same anchor text likely to result in a ranking downgrade because of Penguin?”

The conclusions are that these links will probably NOT affect your rankings under normal circumstances.

As my own little postscript, this does not mean the inappropriate use of excessive link text is acceptable. In particular, I am referring to the situation where some websites have multiple links at the bottom of their pages that are simply multiple variations of keywords maybe in combination with local areas/towns/cities.

For example: blue widgets area1 | blue widgets area2 | green widgets area1 | green widgets area2 | etc.

What do you think? Post your comments and own experiences below . . . . .

---

Related posts:

1. Google Webmaster Tools Notice of Detected Unnatural Links
2. Should I Purchase Domain With Links/Spam/Ranking Already Associated With It? | Google Video
3. Google Introduces New Meta News Keyword Tag
4. Google changed the way it notifies webmasters of suspected unnatural linking
5. Google Video – Why some terrible spammy websites might still rank well