We REDUCED exact-match internal anchors and stopped a dilution problem. Yes, internal anchors can be over-opti

We REDUCED exact-match internal anchors and stopped a dilution problem. Yes, internal anchors can be over-optimized.

Contrarian to my own earlier point — and that's the case. A site linked one money page 200 times internally with the identical exact-match anchor: same 4 words, every link. Aggressive. Rankings had plateaued and one secondary term tanked.

We diversified: kept descriptive anchors but varied them — synonyms, partial matches, longer natural phrases — across those 200 links.

Over 10 weeks the page recovered the lost secondary term (back into top 10) AND gained on the primary, because it now ranked for a wider semantic spread. Total organic to that URL up 22%.

Keyword-rich beats 'click here' — but 200 identical anchors is a footprint, even internally. The sweet spot is descriptive and varied.

Is your money page getting the same robotic anchor 100 times? That's not optimization, that's a tell.