anchor text vs. branding?

[ssteve]

I am obviously all for putting critical key phrases into the achor text, when you exchange links.

But there is something to be said for having your brand there as well (not for search engines, mind you), but for human browsers. In other words, people would start becoming familiar with your brand, and start coming over if they see the brand xx times.

In that case, anchor text would read like:
great widgets - greatwidgets.com

Any thoughts on that. What are other folks doing on this?

[cshetler]

That's a great question, I hope someone has some sage advice. :)

I am currently working on putting together link text for a site (the "site title" link text that directories ask for) and I too am wondering if I should put just the term, such as "widgets", or just the domain "great-widgets.com" or a hybrid like "widgets at great-widgets.com".

[mnemtsas]

I'm for putting a keyword in the product name, and possibly in the domain name too, and even within the company name. It makes SEO so much easier. My key product is 'Timesheets MTS', domain is timesheetsmts.com, company name is Moving Target Software. No surprisingly timesheets is my strongest keyword. Sometimes I wish I picked a better one.

[Dominic]

With anchor text, go for exactly what you want to be found on in the SE's. This goes for deep links too.

If you want to develop a brand, it's not going to happen exchanging links unless you get a couple of million or something, even then... the net is so big.

Sites with relevant traffic may be worth putting an image with alt text (with keywords only) on for targeted traffic if it has high exposure...

But the point is - people 99 out of 100 times will go to a search engine to find your widgets buy product or industry search.

[ssteve]

But the point is - people 99 out of 100 times will go to a search engine to find your widgets buy product or industry search.

Fair enough. Thanks.

[Bernard]

When soliciting a link from a high traffic portal where qualified traffic will be viewing the link, I would prefer link text including the company or product name.

[Catfish]

When soliciting a link from a high traffic portal where qualified traffic will be viewing the link, I would prefer link text including the company or product name.

Yeah its situational but 90% of the time, the exact phrase is the best thing IMO.