"Use exact-match anchor text for internal links."

"Use exact-match anchor text for internal links."

Careful with this one.

A finance blog had 600 internal links all pointing to its "best credit cards" pillar with the identical anchor "best credit cards." An audit flagged it. They diversified anchors on half — "compare top cards," "our card rankings," natural phrasing — and left half as exact-match.

Ten weeks later, both pages held steady. No drop on the exact-match group, no surge on the diversified one. Internal anchor over-optimization is far less penalized than the external kind; this isn't a link scheme, it's your own site.

What actually helped: the diversified anchors created relevant links to three other pages the natural phrasing referenced, spreading internal equity. The win came from the new link targets, not the anchor cosmetics.

Don't rewrite 600 anchors out of fear. Add links to pages that deserve them. (The anchor text was never the bottleneck.)