Hey guys I was just wondering how important it is when building links to have your keywords in the anchor text? For instance I've commented on some dofollow blogs and in that case the link is just my name, completely unrelated to my site. Does this help me ranking higher for certain keywords at all or am I better off concentrating on things like articles where I can put the keywords in the anchor text? When trying to get to the top for certain keywords is on site optimization more important or good anchor text? My rankings haven't moved up for a while now even though the keywords I am trying to come up for aren't that competitive. Its getting frustrating, I'm getting very little traffic.
I don't like to classify certain things as more important than others. Effective SEO is the combination of many different tactics. Anchor text is important, but an incoming link from a good source without anchor text is still worthwhile.
I agree with succeedemail. You should try not to look at things from a 'this is more important than that' point of view. Everything is important. Of course optimise your web pages, get links back to your site, especially from pages with a high Page Rank (PR). Sig links are good but do not stop there, get links from other web sites especially those with a good PR. Try to get your link on the home page as this will usually have the highest PR.
Well, here's a great example of the importance of anchor text... If you search Google for the words click here you get the following result: http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=click+here&aq=f&oq=&aqi=&fp=-Pw1cEIpNGU Check out the first two results and you will see that the words click here DO NOT appear anywhere on those pages, in fact if you click on Google's "Cached" result you will see that is clearly says: These terms only appear in links pointing to this page: click here
Type "click here" in google ,you will find adobe.com be the first.Tens of thousands of anchor text make adobe the first.
It seems the anchor text will help you rank higher for that anchor text whereas a backlink without your anchor text will help you have a higher PR. The best approach is a combination of both strategies.
Any anchor text with a link to your site will help, but best if the text is highly relevant to what someone will see if they clicked...
The most important off page factor to securing high rankings in Google is appropriate anchor text pointing to the specific page of your website that has been optimized to target that term for that keyword phrase. It tells search engines what the page is about. Used wisely, it boosts your rankings in search engines, especially in Google. Anchor text can be used in: * Links on your home or main page – important spot * External links – links from other sites * Internal links – links on your pages * Navigation maps