Q: If I have written a nice feature on a particular topic or product & a number of websites are linking to my site by using my company’s name or the topic that I have covered, will Google penalize me? How can I stop other people from linking to my site with the same keyword?
A: This question has got a great value in the post-Penguin era. The last problem most of the small businesses will find is that too many spontaneous links are being passed over to them. A common problem we come across is building lots of links, which leads to creation of over-optimized links. Such kind of links contains targeted keyword/keyphrase.
The question that you have asked is opposite. When most of the people will spontaneously link to your content, there are chances that most of the links will not be keyword rich since most people do not have the understanding of SEO. As a result, they might link with your company’s name, phrases like “click here” or even naked links. There are lesser chances of you getting into trouble for over-optimization of links.
The spontaneous & over-optimized link building is more common in badges. In case you have a popular reseller program and you create a badge (like “See Us on Yelp), there are chances that you will get many over-optimized links. What you can do is, vary your badge HTML: rotate it. Give set of HTML links to different set of people. This can be an automated process also. All you have to do is, have your programmer randomize the link profile being given in badges.
The same process follows when you ask for links manually. I would advise you to rotate the content and text amongst your keywords, brand name, and naked links. Remember not to over-optimize the link profile, when you are building lot of links.
