Earlier this year, I was having trouble getting good search engine placement for one of our sites. I was trading links like crazy, spending many hours a week trying to optimize the site properly, checking my linking structures, keyword density, etc., but still I was not climbing the ranks in Google.

I tried everything, but nothing was working. Then I had an opportunity to fly to Atlanta, GA for an intensive SEO workshop with Search Engine Specialist Brad Fallon and Online Store Expert Andy Jenkins. When I mentioned my quandary to Brad, he began checking my backlinks for me.

The problem became very obvious the more in depth the investigation got. Yes, I had gotten a lot of backlinks. Yes, I had a strong, keyword related descriptive text. Yes, I had keyword related Anchor Text (The Title linked back to a web site with a hyperlink). But here-in was my problem.

What I had done in my overzealousness to get my links exchanged (with everybody this side of the Sunni Triangle), was Over-Optimized my Anchor Text. Now, we were optimizing for several keyword phrases, but decided to go for a biggie