Is this still considered true about INTERNAL anchor text? "Penguin seems to be targeting overly aggressive anchor text (both internally and externally), especially from low-quality sources."

[corlin]

Recently I've heard a few people say now it's okay to be aggressive with internal linking. So a link from mydomain.com/news to mydomain/widgets can use spammy anchor text like "best green widgets in California" that are an obvious problem for links coming in from external site.

Which is accurate?

[EGOL]

I use anchor text like "green widgets" in persistent navigation and in paragraph text on all of my sites and have no problems.

Now, if you are using chest-thumping anchor text like... "best green widgets in California"... then you might be asking for it.

[RyanPurkey]

Like EGOL mentions, going after unnaturally long links--and the type of copy that falls afield of some of the Adwords policy--is likely to cause issues in your work to aggressively link internally. What is fine is remaining factual and linking to your 'green widgets' page with the link, 'green widgets'.  Just look at Wikipedia's level of internal linking...

Leave the best of stuff to review sites or pages.

[corlin]

Thanks for reply. Is there any difference in Google's treatment of aggressive anchor text between internal and external?

[RyanPurkey]

Read: http://moz.com/blog/most-important-link-penalty-removal-tool-your-mindset. Very much so. Google knows what a natural link profile looks like so well that you're best bet is gaining external links as naturally as possible. Sites with super high percentages of anchor text links, followed links, and conversion page specific links are running red flags in front of Google's eyes.  Take Eric's advice from above.  Cheers!

[corlin]

Im not sure we're communicating. I am well aware of how aggressive anchor text from external links causes problems with Google.

I need to get an idea of how approximately how much leeway there is for internal anchor text. I was told by two people I respect that internal anchor text can be much more aggressive.

[RyanPurkey]

Me either. Previously you asked, "Is there any difference in Google's treatment of aggressive anchor text between internal and external?"  Externally, if every link pointing to your 'green widget' page or home page said, 'green widget' you'd likely get penalized by Google.  Internally, linking to your page as such navigationally and in context like EGOL mentioned is fine. So there's a major difference right there.  I don't think it's a question of 'being aggresive with it' just that you can refer to your own pages more precisely within the context of your own site.

[MarieHaynes]

Here's Matt Cutts on the subject:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ybpXU0ckKQ

Basically he's saying that you are perfectly ok to have exact match anchored internal links.  But, if it becomes really obvious that you're overdoing it to try to manipulate Google then you're at risk for a manual penalty.

Look at wikipedia.  They are the perfect example of a site that has a LOT of exact match anchors.  And they do pretty well.