Anchor Text Question

Compar, do you think then that I should only put the "widget" links on other pages on my site that are about widgets? Or will it still help me if I put links with "widgets" in them on pages that are about, say, blue birds?

Regarding on-page optimization, I've been trying a few different things on different pages. On some pages the keyword appears once in the title and on others it appears twice. I'm including the keyword in the meta description and in alt tags and of course, in the text when I can.

 

just a quick note, alt tags only influence google when they're hyperlinked. otherwise they're ignored.

 

well, I suppose it's possible that I'm wrong. but I never noticed any difference at all, and if they are weighted at all, I'm guessing they don't count for much at all... just because the text is mostly invisible to most visitors, unless they happen to hover over it

 

maybe it's a browser difference? I definitely see alt text when I hover over images

 

My understanding is that it's an incorrect implementation by IE. As Shawn suggests, the title attribute is meant for tooltips (and works in any browser I use), whereas the alt attribute is meant to be an alternative for users who can't see the image (bots included). I'm convinced the alt text is seen by SEs even when they aren't part of a link.

Even if it isn't, it is still proper markup to always have a meaningful alt text for your images.

Maybe I'll run a test on this and some of the other claims in this thread with a couple of isolated pages. It's made me curious. I'll start another thread on that.

 

it's on firefox as well, by the way

 

That's a confusing statement. I believe you mean the title attribute, not the title tag. The title tag is in the "head " section of the web page and I believe you are talking about attributes associated with images.

Now on an earlier statement Shawn, I believe that the vast majority of knowledgable SEO people believe that Google ignores alt tags except for those used for images that are hyperlinks as disgust said. The explanation always is that they are too susceptable to spamming.

 

Your reply and the example of miserable failure has indeed cleared up the misconception I had. Without people like you this forum would be filled with wrong "helpful" information. Thanks again.

I believe Shawn must be refering to the title attribute. IE shows alt text when you hover on a image but Mozilla doesn't.

 

Ok folks, I have added the targeted anchor text to 124 pages of my site and will add 100 more tomorrow. I will report back if it works, not that any of you need the reports of a newbie like me!

 

Do post in your findings...

 

btw, it's also worth pointing out that when both a title and alt attribute are specified, the title one will be used for the tooltip in IE as well, as it should.

 

Yes, but what I like about IE is that if the title attribute is missing and the alt is present then it will show the alt text in the hover while Mozilla doesn't.

 

LOL.... If we have not confused the hell out of chiara yet, we certainly will work on it.... apparently a can of worms was opened up... if you read back you see...

Post: Do this... it works
Next Post: No that doesn't work anymore
Next Post: Yes I agree do this instead
Following Post: No I don't agree, that is not true....

LOL

Here is what I can tell you.
LOTS of content filled pages with your keywords entered into those pages. It takes about 1 year that I have seen for our pages to get to the top of the search engines by letting them sit there and doing nothing else with them.

All search engines are different. Yahoo looks at different stuff than Google etc etc etc.

Step 1
User DP's keyword search in order to find out what keyword phrases you want to optimize for. (If you want a GOOD average of how much traffic per day you will receive from that 1 keyword phrase from 1 search engine, take the Word Tracker results and divide by 60) [Yes there is a longer algorithm to figure that out however the dividing by 60 works pretty well to figure out 1 search engine for being at the top for that 1 keyword phrase.]
IE. Widget returns 448 word traffic results. We are number 1 for widget in G so we see 7 people a day from that keyword phrase, sometimes 9 sometimes 5.

Step 2
Incorporate those keyword phrases into your text, ie Title Tag, Meta Description Tag, Meta Keyword Tag (Yes SEO's, I know the BIG BOYS do not even look at the keyword metatag however there are some of the other meta search engines that do)

Step 3
Sign up for Shawns Ad Network (yes, my affiliate code is in there... if that is not appropriate, let me know and I will take it out) because you will see a tremendous increase in both traffic and search terms with that.

Step 4
Thus far, I have our number 1 keyword phrase at about 48% and we went from non-existent to number 35 in 8 days.

There is a couple of charts if you want to know how PR is passed from one website to another which was your initial question which, by the way, I didn't see was even asnwered.

http://www.compar.com/infopool/articles/PR-calculation.html

What the chart above says is how PR is passed from 1 website to another. PR although not as important anymore still plays a role in where your website is placed in the Search Engines, hence you don't see any PR0 websites at the top of the search engines or even any PR1 websites out there at the top for very competitive keyword phrases.

So the higher in PR that your website is, the better chance it has at getting to the top.

Exceptions (Theory only): I believe that with Shawn's network, any website that has a LOT of pages can make it to the top even with a low amount of PR. A theory but a solid one I think.

Next, if you have around 700,000 results, you cannot just say well I need to have 150 links to be to the top. Contrary to popular belief, you cannot just go link trade and beat your competition as well. Your competition is out their link exchanging as well so as you are building links so are they; and they had a head start.

Internal Links do not count as much as other websites linking to you. If the link that is pointing to you is on the same domain name and you have control over placing that link, then they are not going to count that as much. In fact if the link is on the same IP block (same server) then they do not count it as much however if the links.

Next, one way linking has much more precedence than two way linking. What does this mean?

I link to you but you do not link to me.
This tells the search engines that I think that your website was good enough to put on my pages.... however when they do not find a link to me on your website, I must have done that because I thought that your website would benefit my users instead of us saying, let's get better search engine results by exchanging links. Therefore they place more precedence on a one way link than a link exchange.

Next, is that website relevant to your website. Did someone place you on their pages that has nothing to do with their website. Is their website about robots while yours is about gifts for kids? If so then that website is not really going to help you much. Look at their anchor tags for their website. Do they have similar keyword phrases? Are you going for country widgets and their anchor tags say widgets or city widgets?

Well then they are a good website to exchange links with (mind you G is the one that looks at websites like that at this time). In MSN, ALL links count no matter where they are. I am unsure about Yahoo, I have not read anything about that yet.

Next, Who are you linking to. Yes you CAN lose points in the search engines by who you are linking to (get ready for a contraversy on that statement). Are you linking to websites that the search engines do not like such as links farms, websites that use dirty tactics such as cloaking hidden links,etc etc etc, websites that will not benefit your users such as Adult, Casino etc etc etc unless of course your website is in those categories.

There are millions of FREE tools that are out there to help you benefit in the search engines. I have found shawns network to be the best.

Hope it helps.

 

I have a simple one for you, to start with. Put your site with its desired Anchor text into your signature. Also, place your URL in your profile page here. MSN Seems to really like it at least and I have seen posts in this forum ranking better than the site itself (Its very new though).
Next, setup a blog and put a link on it with more desired anchor text (IMO use different text). Start posting to your blog, submit it to blog directories. And that should help some.

 

Yes, I agree with Rounde as well. It does work and it does help. That is, if you have time to start and maintain the blog.

 

I find MSN (and Google) love this site, it has now become the quickest way to get a site submitted (and ranking in MSN) for me. Quicker than using my own sites...