Link Anchor Text post Penguin 2.0

[casper434]

I have heard a great variety of views concerning the anchor text used for link building post Penguin 2.0 but have yet to hear some consensus. Some say the anchor text for external links should be different than internal. Some say brand should be used on external and keywords on internal. Some say brand and a variety of keywords on external. Any thoughts on a strategy consistent with google expectations and guidelines?

[firstconversion]

Go to open site explorer and put in the worlds top brands Nike, Amazon etc

That is how Google will expect a natural backlink profile to be

http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links.html?page=1&site=www.nike.com&sort=page_authority&filter=&source=external&target=page&group=0

Stephen

[EGOL]

Do what Stephen says...   then...

Go look at the backlink profile of people who come in here cryin'.

[OlegKorneitchouk]

I would replace Nike, Amazon, etc. with competitors in your industry that are ranking for the keywords you want to. Different industries have different definitions of "natural" and seeing link profiles for sites who rank for your keywords would give you a better idea of what you should shoot for.

[firstconversion]

I thought of recommending that Oleg, but often the people in a niche may also be ranking on the basis of spam, or may not yet have been caught.

If you have well known brands in a niche, then I think that is OK, otherwise I think the megabrands that have no need for linkbuilding are better signals to follow

[jesse-landry]

Am I the only one who finds OSE anchor text report to be a bit... lacking? I mean.. compared to ahrefs.com anyway?

Why does ahrefs so handily win this battle? I don't want to have to convince my boss to buy me an ahrefs membership so I'd like an excuse not to.

[casper434]

This makes sense Stephen if you have a recognized brand. What about a real estate agent who is licensed through an agency and who works in a specific market? Should the "brand" be name only, name / agency,  or name / agency / market area? This one I think is a bit tougher?

For example: Joe Blow, Joe Blow; XXX Realty, or Joe Blow: XXX Realty / market area?

thanks

Brett

[firstconversion]

It should be a combination of all of the above, in a ratio that normal citations would give you - just like the Nike one is

There is no perfect or correct answer. Look at what natural looks like and model that

Stephen

[Cyrus-Shepard]

I'm going to sidestep this question and say that the profile Google prefers is one that is earned, and not built.

Anytime you are able to choose the anchor text of your external links, this is a "built" link and no matter how much you diversify, you risk creating a pattern that Google can detect - if not now, then in the future.

The external sites that allow you to choose your own anchor text, in most cases (but not all) often are not the best link targets.

Is this realistic? For a lot of link builders, probably not. But the key is to diversify as much as possible. A lot of folks will tell you silly rules like 20% branded anchor text, but those rules have changed so much in the past 2 years, where will they be a year from now? Google keeps changing the rules to crack down on unearned links.

Regardless, I'll get off my soapbox and leave you with a couple of posts/videos I made about the subject of anchor text:

http://moz.com/blog/high-value-tactics-futureproof-link-building-whiteboard-friday

http://moz.com/blog/click-here-seo

Hope this helps! Best of luck with your SEO.

[Cyrus-Shepard]

Hi Jesse,

aHrefs does an awesome job visualizing their anchor text reports, I agree. We're working on updating how we visualize data in Open Site Explorer in our long term plans. Lots of cool things in all of our products.

That said, the quality of the data in the OSE anchor text report is damn fine