Anchor Text Usage

[Vegitss]

Hi,

What is the best way to use anchor text during link building after recent updates from Google.

I thinking of doing the following:

60% Brand Keyword (my site name)
20% Click here, visit this site etc
20% myurl.com
10% a Mix of both broad & phrase match of my targetted keyword.

What do you suggest

Does anyone have a working strategy?

Will be waiting for your replies...

[EvolveCreative]

Check out this case study:

http://www.micrositemasters.com/blog/penguin-analysis-seo-isnt-dead-but-you-need-to-act-smarter-and-5-easy-ways-to-do-so/

It will answer your question and will be better than any opinion you read here.

[Cyrus-Shepard]

Hi Vegitss,

Great topic as I'm actually working on a blog post about this as we speak.

Since Penguin and the over-optimization updates, we've seen an explosion of "click here" and "example.com" links in an effort to "normalize" folks' backlink profiles. The article that David mentioned on Microsite Masters did a lot to propel this myth.

But there's a downside too. Links like "click here" don't communicate much information to Google about context. In fact, the last time Google updated it's SEO Starter Guide, it officially discouraged these types of links:

Avoid:

• writing generic anchor text like "page", "article", or "click here"
• using text that is off-topic or has no relation to the content of the page linked to
• using the page's URL as the anchor text in most cases

- although there are certainly legitimate uses of this, such as promoting or referencing a new website's address

Bill Slawski has written extensively about anchor text and their use in Phrase Based Indexing through Google patent filings. If I may quote one of his summaries:

"Anchor text in links pointing to a page that include the phrase or a related phrase (one that tends to co-occur on pages that rank for that phrase) should be given more weight than anchor text that doesn’t."

Of course, a lot has changed in the past couple of years. Google is undoubtedly much better at using contextual analysis and techniques like co-citation at inferring link context.

So I do my best to avoid generic anchors whenever possible. 4 alternatives to generic anchors that I like to use include:

1. Brand/Business Name - I see it's on your list - There is potential for problems if your brand name is also keyword rich, like "Best Blue Widgets Inc" - This is almost the same as exact match keywords, so it's best to proceed cautiously.
2. People's Names - Such as folks who work in your organization. Got this tip from Dan Shure - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Dt_0u98gVE
3. Partial Match - The problem with partial match is that folks over-do it.
   • Loan
   • Payday Loan
   • Fast Cash Loan... These are obviously intended for search engines and not for users. A true partial match anchor text puts the user first, like "find consumer friendly loan options here" or "a great borrowing program" are more indicative of what I would prefer.
4. Related Text - Again, from Bill Slawski - "(as defined by the phrase-based indexing patents) than generic text, especially if the anchor text gives potential visitors a good idea of what they might find on the other side of a link."

Of course, I could be wrong about all of this. But I think if we look at Google's intent - create content for users and not search engines - adopting this strategy will go much further long term than any short term gains had by trying to "trick" search engines by using "click" here type anchor text.

Just my 2 cents