How specific does keyword anchor text need to be?

[RodneyRiley]

I'm trying to get to the bottom of something. If you are trying to optimise for a phrase e.g.

"Keyword 1 Keyword 2"

And your anchor text is something like

"Keyword 1 keyword 2 Another word"

Does this still provide as much weight for "keyword 1 keyword 2" or does the additional word come into play and dilute the effect? If it does come into play does it have much of an effect?

[debi_zyx]

This isn't really an answer to the question - in fact, it's something I've wondered about myself and I'd be happy to hear if people have anything to say on it that's backed up by research (probably wouldn't be too hard to design a test for anyone who's interested: take two new sites or new, identical pages on one site: promote one with KW1, KW2 only anchor text (gibberish words) and one with identical amounts of links (and from the same places) but some KW1, KW2 and some KW!, KW2, KW3 text, and see which one ranks first.  Admittedly this isn't water-tight, especially considering one has to rank first, and even if the difference is reallt minute, with nothing else to go on Google might choose exact match.

On the other hand, we might see (and even if we don't see it in such a small test, it might be true) that Google would actually prefer to see variation - especially if you're talking about large numbers of links, it will make the link profile look more natural.

Maybe if I have the chance I'll run the test myself, but that might take a while to get around to it...

Good luck!

[Dan-Petrovic]

I have payed around anchor text and found that all of the following work rather well:

phrase

word phrase

phrase word

word phrase word

phrase 1 phrase 2

Even these:

for more information on phrase visit: URL

phrase: URL

image link alt="phrase'

Without seeing specifics I can't say more but I woudl say if it makes sense to have the two phrases together then have it together by all means. In terms of dilution - I would not obsess over it to much if the link anchor looks natural.

[RodneyRiley]

Thank you for your input,

I can be more specific, if you had a link e.g. <a href="">Play Sand Suppliers</a> or <a href="">Play Sand</a> Suppliers which of the two pushes the phrase Play Sand harder?

Thoughts?

[GrouchyKids]

I have definitely heard advice from an SEOMoz video (purchased) that took the view that you can be penalised for anchor text repetition, I tend to vary everything when I link build including descriptions.  If building for Directories I also like to see how the descriptions compare to those of the competitors just to make sure that they are all that they can be.

[Getz.pro]

Hi Rodney,

I don't think the additional word so much dilutes the value rather than it changes the context. Presuming you have done all your keyword research...

Play Sand Suppliers

Play Sand

Using the additional keyword Supplier would change the context to say purchasing rather than say landscaping. So Play Sand would be a broad term, and adding supplier would narrow that term as each additional keyword would.

I hope that helps

[ninjamarketer]

Rodney,

Google spiders not only reads the anchor text on the link but also take into consideration ton of other factors including the text around the link, website url, domain name,  domain authority, page authority, title tag and several on page elements to decide the worthiness of a link.

"Keyword 1 Keyword 2" anchor text definitely has more weight than "Keyword 1 Keyword 2 another word" or any other variation but that alone is not enough to rank for the keyword.

I have seen direct improvement in keyword rank due to exact anchor text vs anchor text with extra words but too many backlinks with exact anchor text will be considered a forced attempt to gain ranking and Google could disqualify the link juice completely.

Google is already beefing up their algorithm to disqualify paid and farm links. One of the most common themes in all paid links is the exact anchor text so it will be easier for Google to identify a set of exact anchor text links on a website with dofollow.

Always try to use anchor text variations in the link building campaign. There are far better chances of rank improvement with an organic link building strategy compared to a forced anchor text tactic.

Hope this helps.

Thanks

Sameer