Effective Anchor Text to Improve Rankings
http://www.marketingbizbuz.com/articles/7359/1/Effective-Anchor-Text-to-Improve-Rankings/Page1.html
Warren Miller
Warren Miller is the lead marketing consultant for Lazer Promotions - a 'new media' marketing agency that delivers customized solutions through new technologies. They just launched the Lazer Alliance membership club to help business owners to get ahead online, featuring various marketing solutions, one-on-one consulting and more. By Warren Miller
Published on 02/7/2010
The ‘anchor text’ is the keyword or key phrase you use when linking from some another website to your own This is the hyperlinked text that is visible to the human eye
The ‘anchor text’ is the keyword or key phrase you use when linking from some another website to your own. This is the hyperlinked text that is visible to the human eye. In order to improve your search engine rankings, make sure you also focus on which anchor texts you are using when building links back to your website.
To see an example of how powerful this anchor text is, go to Google and do a search for the phrase “click here”. At the time of this writing, there are over 1 billion results when searching for that phrase. It would be almost impossible to get anywhere near the top of those results. This spot is currently held by the adobe site, due to the fact that many websites have linked to the adobe site with the phrase “click here”.
When you have the opportunity to add your own anchor text, make sure you choose the right phrase. You can choose your own text when submitting articles, social bookmarks, in the signature of your email, and countless other ways. Which of the following do you find more appealing?
• A basic link, such as 'www.lazerpromotions.com'.
• A standard anchor text, like 'click here'.
• Or a descriptive anchor text 'High-Impact Marketing Solutions'.
All of the above link to the same website, but its probably safe to say the last one would have a higher click-through rate. Additionally, if the anchor text mirrors your website’s main keywords, it will also help to improve your website’s search engine ranking.
Guidelines for Choosing Effective Anchor Texts:
1. Use Multiple Anchor Texts: As mentioned before, you should be using your main keywords in your anchor texts. Make sure you vary them a little bit. Pick 3-5 of your primary keyword phrases and use them all as anchor text on different sites. Having too many of the exact phrases pointing to your site might raise a red flag over at Google and they may even penalize your site. So use a lot of variations and different keywords in your anchor text.
2. Choose your anchor texts carefully: This goes back to your keyword research. When doing that, you should have chosen the keywords or key phrases that are relative, popular, and without too much competition. If your keywords or phrases don’t have these qualities, building backlinks may not really help improve your rankings anyway. Your keywords must relate to your niche, must be used often in the search engines, and must not have TOO many companies competing for the same ones. Once you have chosen your keywords, use them as your anchor texts going forward.
Don’t limit yourself to just putting the anchor texts on a few sites that offer backlinks. You could write articles and distribute them to various article directories, submit your link to website directories, social bookmarking, comment on do-follow blogs, participate in relevant forums with your link in your signature, video and RSS fee submissions, and more. All of these strategies will allow you to gain more awareness of your brand by using the proper anchor texts.
Every single anchor text you place out there will help in some way. Just remember – building a site that ranks high for your keywords takes time. It’s not something that just happens overnight, but if you’ve chosen the proper key phrases, use a few variations of them on different sites, and keep a consistent approach you will soon see your website moving up the rankings.
To see an example of how powerful this anchor text is, go to Google and do a search for the phrase “click here”. At the time of this writing, there are over 1 billion results when searching for that phrase. It would be almost impossible to get anywhere near the top of those results. This spot is currently held by the adobe site, due to the fact that many websites have linked to the adobe site with the phrase “click here”.
When you have the opportunity to add your own anchor text, make sure you choose the right phrase. You can choose your own text when submitting articles, social bookmarks, in the signature of your email, and countless other ways. Which of the following do you find more appealing?
• A basic link, such as 'www.lazerpromotions.com'.
• A standard anchor text, like 'click here'.
• Or a descriptive anchor text 'High-Impact Marketing Solutions'.
All of the above link to the same website, but its probably safe to say the last one would have a higher click-through rate. Additionally, if the anchor text mirrors your website’s main keywords, it will also help to improve your website’s search engine ranking.
Guidelines for Choosing Effective Anchor Texts:
1. Use Multiple Anchor Texts: As mentioned before, you should be using your main keywords in your anchor texts. Make sure you vary them a little bit. Pick 3-5 of your primary keyword phrases and use them all as anchor text on different sites. Having too many of the exact phrases pointing to your site might raise a red flag over at Google and they may even penalize your site. So use a lot of variations and different keywords in your anchor text.
2. Choose your anchor texts carefully: This goes back to your keyword research. When doing that, you should have chosen the keywords or key phrases that are relative, popular, and without too much competition. If your keywords or phrases don’t have these qualities, building backlinks may not really help improve your rankings anyway. Your keywords must relate to your niche, must be used often in the search engines, and must not have TOO many companies competing for the same ones. Once you have chosen your keywords, use them as your anchor texts going forward.
Don’t limit yourself to just putting the anchor texts on a few sites that offer backlinks. You could write articles and distribute them to various article directories, submit your link to website directories, social bookmarking, comment on do-follow blogs, participate in relevant forums with your link in your signature, video and RSS fee submissions, and more. All of these strategies will allow you to gain more awareness of your brand by using the proper anchor texts.
Every single anchor text you place out there will help in some way. Just remember – building a site that ranks high for your keywords takes time. It’s not something that just happens overnight, but if you’ve chosen the proper key phrases, use a few variations of them on different sites, and keep a consistent approach you will soon see your website moving up the rankings.