Slapped by the Penguin

[seoninja20]

We had a client's website hit hard by the Penguin update, particularly on the 24th. Sitewide each keyword lost 10-20 positions. It was in #1 or #2 for the past couple years.

We optimize all of our websites onpage features well and within the whitehat realm. Since this was the only website affected out of 50+ other sites, I am guessing the penalty came directly from the backlink profile which was quite bad. The client had bought two other directory link package deals about 4 years ago which all of the incoming directory links have the exact same anchor text. I warned him this was completely unnatural and we only went after "natural-looking" links since then. Keep in mind these links were from 4+ years ago and did very little for rankings as we came into the picture.

Out of 143 root domain links, around 45 use the same anchor text in link.

We started with about 50 links total 2 years ago and have since built a very good quality profile, or so I thought. I was almost certain is was enough various anchor text to dilute it down.

I'm wondering if any of your websites that have been hit have a high amount of exact match anchor text. I can't believe Google would penalize just for linkbuilding because it seems to be an easy way to attack competitors but all my data is looking that way. Let me know your thoughts if any of your sites have been hit. Thanks

[MSWD]

Yes, I've had several hit hard.  A few are from the same situation that you have.  I'm hoping that the update has not completed yet and that things will raise back up over the next few weeks.  I can't see how this could be the "final product" ... at least I'm hoping.

[BMac54]

We're in the same boat on 2 sites. Went from #1 to page 2 on many major searches.

[seoninja20]

Did you guys have a high amount of exact anchor text? We were at roughly 33% for a single phrase when it hit us.

Ironically, the anchor text used for all the spam directory links wasn't even a good search term and we never optimized a page to utilize it.

[BMac54]

Not that high of a percentage, but yes they are niche sites so "close to exact match anchor text" is extremely hard to avoid.

For someone to link to our site about "tonneau covers" and not mention that term...it really makes little to no sense.

[MSWD]

local niche, so yes the anchor text was probably very similar.  What's really weird is that I just noticed on one of my sites that I had accidentally left some REALLY old pages up for a couple of cities.  These are actually ranking now front page.  The others are back on page 2 or 3 and this one is now top 5.

I think I'm just going to see what next week holds.  Google seems to have lost a screw this week.  I've had enough! Signing off for the week...