I see today on the Keyword Tracker that I have a new search term that has jumped to #1 (or variously, #2) on Google. It is "Pentecostal Preaching". But the keyword "preaching" does not even occur on the page! The quote below, from the Google search results page, reveals that this keyword occurs only in "links pointing to" the page that came up #1 (or #2). How did this happen? I began to use "Pentecostal Preaching" as the title in directory submissions. Conclusion? Good anchor text in inbound links can get you a high SERPs result, even if that text does not occur in the actual text of your page.
Nothing mew really M8TY - tho a simplified approach as such won't get you 'viagra' or anything.... The less the competitive the term the better your chances obviosly. For competitive term, you'd probably like to do a litttle more... good observation none-the-less
True, it's easier to get to or near the top with less competitive keywords. The keyword phrase in the example draws 12 daily searches according to WordTracker. If the first-listed term in Google's SERPs get close to a 100% click rate, that keyword(s) alone would draw perhaps 4,000 visitors to the site each year. I realize that the importance of anchor text is well known to the many established professionals here. But there are thousands of DPers who have not yet learned of its importance. On their sites you'll see links with words like "Click here", instead of keyword-rich wording. I wrote this example primarily for them. Simply changing from meaningless anchor text to keyword-rich anchor text will greatly improve the search results for their websites.
I don't get the point of your post, oseymour. I've known it for years too. That's why I use keyword-rich anchor text all the time, and have for years. I've moved two dozen keywords to Google's first page using this (and other aspects of SEO). I'm not posting things like this to show what I know. Who cares? I'm posting it to help the many who don't know these things. That's what DP is all about — helping others while we ourselves learn more each day.
Yuppers... gotta cover the bases. I think a great many terms/phrases don't require one to be a Pro SEO - we're for the tough terms, or folks without the time to learn the DIY route... So woop woop - let's all boogie now.. it's Saturday Night!
Jim, Thanks for posting some real evidence... it's good to demonstrate the point, so newbies can learn from it, and to remind the others. Link anchor text does matter, basic SEO fact #5. ;-) But, the page upon which that backlink occurs... is very, VERY important, too! (basic SEO fact #4) Are there any directories out there that are worthwhile, besides Yahoo and DMOZ/ODP? Six to nine months ago, I had listed a home page on dozens of directory pages, with PR=2, 3, or 4, but that seems to have been a total waste of effort, Google-wise. Blog comments, forum postings, social bookmarks, wiki pages, nothing like that works on Google anymore... no backlinks! We have over 200 back-links on MSN, over 100 on Yahoo, and only 5 on Google. How can a local small business get some link juice?
GeoFan, FWIW, the submissions (maybe 6 or 8 of them) were to entirely new directories. (Anecdotal observation: Links from new directories can help.) Nowhere else. And I haven't yet used the extra benefit of pointing a few internal links to the targeted page, using that specific anchor text.
Odd, it seems that new directories would have very little pagerank... What was the pagerank of those pages you posted links on? Were you the first link on those pages? I observed that Google tends to like very fresh pages, or very old pages, and quickly gets very fickle about those new pages.
To the best of my recollection, I was the first submission to the subcategory in each of these directories. I didn't bother to check the PR; they were brand new directories.
Pretty Cool. It's good to see results like this cause it keeps you going. Sometimes I wonder if it all really helps, SEO, or if it just helps people sell SEO ebooks. Thanks for the report.
but how come the case of adobe is not yet cleared? Still, when you search for 'click here' on google, it returns adobe on #1. how come they are not affected with Googlebomb then?