| There has been a lot of talk about the merits | | | | And so, it's better if you pick a half dozen |
| of "anchor text," the technique of using | | | | keywords and then vary them as anchor text to |
| keyword text linked to your website URL. For | | | | your website link. |
| example, you could link "bass fishing" to | | | | |
| your bassfishing website. | | | | (However, it is interesting that Google has |
| | | | not de-indexed the sites using the anchor |
| You can use anchor text on your website to | | | | text of "failure" to Bush's biography ... but |
| link to other pages within your site, or you | | | | that's politics.) |
| can use it with your links on other websites. | | | | |
| This technique can be quite effective. | | | | What's also effective is to use keywords of |
| | | | 3-5 words for your anchor text. You not only |
| One well-known example of the effectiveness | | | | reduce the competition by using more |
| of anchor text is "failure" -- just go to | | | | keywords, but you also narrow your traffic to |
| Google and type in "failure," and you will | | | | just the people who are interested in your |
| get the website of George W. Bush's | | | | website. |
| biography! | | | | |
| | | | Let's face it, using a keyword like "fish" as |
| How did this happen? | | | | anchor text to your website probably won't |
| | | | get you the most qualified traffic. After |
| Well, many of Bush's detractors put the text | | | | all, "fish" has a lot of meanings -- you can |
| "failure" on their websites and linked it to | | | | even attract people just wanting learn how to |
| Bush's biography. Over time, and with enough | | | | play the card game Fish. |
| anchor text on many, many sites linked to | | | | |
| Bush's biography, now Bush's biography is | | | | But if you use keywords like "bass fishing |
| listed number one in Google for the keyword | | | | tackle," then you will get qualified traffic |
| "failure." | | | | to your site -- people who actually do bass |
| | | | fishing and want to know how to do it better. |
| This teaches us an important lesson. If you | | | | Even better is "bass fishing tackle lures." |
| want to get listed number one in the search | | | | With that, your visitors can really zero in |
| engines for a keyword, then pick a keyword | | | | on your website. |
| you want to be listed for, and then put a | | | | |
| link to your website behind that text keyword | | | | Using 3-5 word anchor text keywords will |
| on hundreds or thousands of websites. | | | | always do better than one or two words. Also, |
| | | | vary the text, like "fish for bass tackle" or |
| But, hey, not so fast. Bush's "failure" story | | | | "best lake bass fishing lures" -- use your |
| has gone its rounds and a lot of people know | | | | imagination. The more words and the more |
| about it. In fact, so many people have used | | | | variations, the better your chances to get |
| this ploy that Google now has a name for it: | | | | your pages picked up in the search engine |
| "anchor text spamming." | | | | results pages (SERPs). You really don't want |
| | | | to compete with all of the anchor text for |
| It's like so many things on the Internet -- | | | | "bass fishing." |
| what worked for a while doesn't work as well | | | | |
| any longer. In fact, now Google gets | | | | For best results, use 3-5 keywords in your |
| suspicious when they see the same anchor text | | | | anchor text and vary it from link to link ... |
| linking to the same website over and over. | | | | |