Could crosslinking using very general anchor texts be a reason for a drop in rankings?

Question

I have crosslinked 20 sites and I thought I have been penalized for this, asked this question and some experienced members told me maybe that crosslinking may not necessarily be the reason.

The sites are on same host, different C class IP and every site in linked to each other.

Each site targets long tail kewords. Site 1 - BMW Used Cars - and my area Site 2 - WW Used Cars - and my area And so on...

When I crosslinked them (in the sidebar), I did it for the users; instead of repeating the terms used cars and my location over and over (since my users are targeted) I just crosslinked them using the brand: BMW, WW.

Targeting locally, my niches are not overly competitive, so I did not need to many external links to rank on various positions on the 1st page.

I'm thinking that when I chose to link using only the brand, google might have thought I wanted to actually rank for BBW and WW, hence the drop in my targeted local traffic.

Could this be?

I now have no-followed the links and I am noticing a slight recovery, but if it's not a interlinking penalty it would be a shame not to benefit from my links.

Answer 1

I think it could well be because you interlinked them.

However, to answer your question, since one of the last Google updates, targeting the same URL with site-wide links and overoptimised keyword can incur in a "penalty" (is suspected to be "discounted links", not a real penalty). So for example, assuming you have Site 1, Site 2, ..., Site N, if every Site from 2 to N is linking to Site 1 saying "BMW for sale" is quite risky. However if you have "BMW" for site 2, "Used BMW" For site 3, etc etc it's less risky.

A good way to vary anchor text is to stick your brand name in the anchor text.