Anchor Text Profile Only Branded

[dsinger]

So, I was looking at my backlink anchor text profile and easily over 90% of my links use some variation of my brand as the anchor text.  This includes my full brand name, a shorter more common name and the naked url.  My question is, is this bad for my ranking?  I know having too many money words as anchors is not good, but what about having too many brand anchors?

[redfishking]

I think it depends on the niche that you are in and what your competitors are doing. If your competitors have a very small percentage of branded anchor text, that could make you stand out, hopefully in a good way. High percentage domain/brand match anchor text is generally a very good SEO practice.

[irvingw]

Google allows a higher threshold of brand name anchor texts because that's how people would naturally link to you commonly. That being said, it's good to hear that they are variations, I would keep mixing them up as much as possible.

[JMacSupply]

While on a smaller scale it may not have a direct influence on ranking (because it is a brand name) it can be an issue if it is overdone. I believe for brand names (in most industries) Google does not penalize as heavily when compared to standard anchor text or keywords. However, moving forward I would try to limit over-usage of your brand name and continue to use the other variations as well.