Anchor text can be a very effective form of optimising a particular keyword phrase. Also referred to as “bombing”, many website owners use Anchor Text Links as a way of gaining page rankings for a particular web page they wish to optimise for related keywords.
How Anchor Text Links Work
Search engines attribute rank to a page largely due to the amount of links to it (incoming links) found throughout the internet. The more links and the better the link quality, the higher the page’s rank.
There is also high value placed on the actual anchor text when it consistently contains the same hyperlink. Some surmise this is due to the ability of the anchor text to describe the target page’s subject matter and content. Basically, this tells the search engine how to index the page and the number of links represents relevancy for the keywords.
Unscrupulous internet users can start a Google bomb campaign to associate a negative term with a particular site, as well. Several years ago, there was a grass roots movement to link the term “miserable failure” with the then U.S. President. It worked – until Google shut it down.
Let’s take a look at an example so you can understand the specifics of how using anchor text and bombing works…
For our purposes here, let’s assume you have a website that teaches people how to learn the art of affiliate marketing. You have determined that the site is getting minimal traffic and few visitors are entering on the buy page and actually purchasing. Knowing one way to optimise this particular page is to use Anchor Text Links made up of related keywords, you decide on “learn affiliate marketing”, so your anchor text link would be… learn affiliate marketing.
Using Anchor Text For Your Web Page
The next step is to induce others to include the particular anchor text of “learn affiliate marketing” and associated link in a post or page on their site. You can do this in a couple ways; usually by trading links or through social bookmarking.
Of course, you can accomplish this yourself, too. Write an article giving affiliate marketing tips along with the anchor text and post it on several directories. Use the link in a blog post, both at your own blog and as a guest poster on others’ sites.
Social networking sites also allow you to add a hyperlink with this anchor text in your profile and posts. Leave blog comments on dofollow blogs with subject matter related to affiliate marketing and online business and use the phrase as your name (which will include the URL link).
Utilise anchor text in other areas of your website, as well. You can create a navigation map using the phrase and include it in textual content on other internal pages. Place it on the index page to get maximum search engine exposure. You could also use this anchor text in the description of an appropriate photo – that links to the page.
Anchor Text Links give the savvy internet marketer just one more way to increase page ranking. This type of campaign may be just the thing you need to gain additional traffic – and sales.
About Sean Rasmussen
Man there is so much to learn about all this stuff. Do you know of any publications which cover this in more depth?
As far as anchored text links go, I feel this article gives you enough information to give you an understanding of how it works and how to implement them. If it is something you want to go into more deeply, it would be a matter of researching the topic on Google.
How many ways can you use anchored text links for SEO? A number, so it seems!
I am grateful for all this information.
However, I think I am going to have to wade in a bit deeper before a lot of it begins to bear fruit.
It seems to me more and more that there is so much information that is required that it gets more difficult to even get started.
The more I know the less I feel inclined to get my feet wet in many areas. It seems that without the knowledge of all these linking techniques that whatever one writes is going to end up in oblivion.
I must learn to write in such a way that all these techniques are natural and will automatically happen. I find it impossible to write and worry about them until later.
I am grateful for the information but frustrated with the lack of ability on my part to take full advantage of all these wonderful tips I read.
But, anyway, thanks for frustrating me.
Hi Dobbs. If you try to do everything all at once you will more than likely fail. When climbing a mountain, the desired result is to get to the top and you cannot do so without tackling each step one at a time
Thats right Dobbs, I sometimes feel the same.
But I take one thing at the time, and like you I will get there!
When I started out with Karate and saw what the black belts did,
I didn’t think I could ever do that.
Going through the grades I am now able to spar with them,
(not able to beat them yet!)
So never give up!!
Hi Sean,
I always link from my posts using my anchor text. I’m just not sure how to get other people to link to my page using my anchor text every time. This is the thing that I am struggling with.
I’ll try your suggestions though and see what happens.
I like the term “Bombing”, it has a ring to it!
I always assumed that using relevant anchor text was important because it tells the reader what to expect on the other side of the link but did not realize that the anchor text actually had SEO relevance as well.
Thanks I learnt something new today! : )
Hi Sean,
The value of optimising and anchor text linking is slowly starting to sink in. I had to read the article a few times to help with my understanding and comprehension.
I think, Learn Affiliate Marketing was a good example you used to help understanding as it’s something I’ve become familiar with over the past few months and could relate to this example used.
I have used anchor texts without really understanding them – and this article makes their use and purpose a whole lot clearer.
It also reminds me that the tag for links is vital – whereas I have been careless with that – often skipping it altogether.
Sean, I empathise with Dobbs in that I can get overwelmed with so much information.
I can spend too much time trying to read all your information and getting lost in that and not actually doing anything. I think I need to set up a spreadsheet to keep track of what I have tried.
There is a lot of valuable information here about anchor text links and how to use them, thanks.
Hi Sean
This is, once again, great information for optimising my site with anchor text links.
As yet, I have only very few hyperlinks in my blog and no in going or out going links at this stage.
After reading this I feel confident that I can now implement this information when I continue on with building my blogs. Thank you.
Thanks Sean, before this I didn’t even know what a tag was!
I’ll just take one thing at the time.
One step at a time is the way to go Willem. There is a lot of stuff you can learn and trying to do it all at once will lead to overload and confusion in most cases