Google has officially announced a change in how they evaluate links: “We have changed the way in which we evaluate links; in particular, we are turning off a method of link analysis that we used for several years.”

I think it has to do with anchor texts. Let’s take the following example: You add a link to “Vandelay Industries” which produces transistors. Which of the following links looks more natural?

1. Visit Vandelay Industries if you need transistors and other electronic components.
2. Visit Vandelay Industries if you need transistors and other electronic components.

If you are writing something for humans, #2 is more natural, while #1 is SE bots friendly.
#1 is one form of over optimization and it may trigger a penalty. Google is mature enough now to know what “vandelay.com” website is about so you don’t need to stuff keywords in anchor.

Let’s say CNN writes an article on their online newspaper about Vandelay Industries. If they want to include a link, how would it look like?

1. transistors
2. Vandelay Industries
3. http://vandelay.com

It’s obvious #3 and #2 are the most probable, because CNN wants to simply refer readers to a website and not to do SEO.