Anchor Text For Search Engine Optimization

Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Tuesday, 10 of June , 2008 at 6:55 am

Any time you are building and undertaking a search engine optimization program for a website you should give careful consideration to all aspects of anchor text in order to rank well.

The anchor text of external links used to point to your website are extremely important to your search engine optimization efforts, but only if they contain your targeted keywords for the page the link points to. It is however, very difficult to control the anchor text used by others when they link to you.

Internal links on the other hand are under your control. There are two basics forms of internal link: in content links; and menu style links. Your search engine optimization strategy needs to target these links correctly to get the most out of them.

In content links are by far the most valuable when it comes to search engine optimization; in fact there is conjecture that having content links and menu links can be counter productive with Google at least perhaps only giving weight to first link its spiders encounter.

To gain the most value from your in content links, your search engine optimization program needs to target the best value keywords to use as anchor text. The best value keywords are those that are in context with highly relevant text in close proximity. I am sure you have come across sites that has content on a particular subject, yet the links are using keywords totally unrelated to that content - in fact some sites make no sense at all when you read the content - these are spammy links which Google at least is starting to identify.

Menu links require a similar treatment in that the anchor text should relate to page being pointed to. Closely related menu items should be placed close together. Using an alphabetical listing can often be counter productive. For example, if you have menu links to red widgets, blue widgets and green widgets; placing them together makes more sense than separating them. Again close proximity to similar text may help - the jury has not made a decision on the value of this technique. However, when it comes to search engine optimization, why leave anything to chance.

Anchor text is the single most important factor when it comes to links. You have little control in the way that others link to you. Your search engine optimization program can control your internal links and the anchor text used.

                      Category: Internal Linking, SEO