I'm a bit new to all of this still, but slowly and surely learning the ropes thanks to this forum. Through research and posts on this forum I found that it is recommended to get many different anchor texts on your back links (inbound links from other sites). Why is this? It seems to me if you're trying to get #1 search results for a certain keyword, it would better if all your inbound links had that same keyword in the anchor text. No? Thanks for any explanation on this. sixpack
Think about it this way: the search engines are only going to rank you highly if they feel that the inbound links are 'natural'. There's no way that a site would have 100% of the links pointing to it with the SAME anchor text. So the recommendation to vary it is in place so that the inbound links look natural.
Well number one isn’t all best (all though it may seem like it). Getting number 1 for an unsearched keyword is easy, and not that useful. You are far better of spreading your range. I also believe that the more optimised your site is the more likely Google will flag it as spam, so optimising completely on this on keyword in your anchor might not benefit you. It may even flag you as spam (but I could be wrong here) - edit that last post wasn’t above me before I posted, great minds think alike
Good comments. So lets say I've been promoting my site with anchor text "word1 word2 word3", is it sufficient to switch it up to "word1 word2 word4"? In other words... do I need to completely change all the words in the anchor text for this strategy to work, or can 1 or 2 words remain in anchor text of inbound links. Sure don't want to get flagged as spam...
It’s all a bit dependant on how many anchors you already have. I have no idea how many or what % looks likes spam. How many anchor links do you have for each phrase so far? Maybe it’s better to stick for the safe option and change completely. You can always change back later; Google likes to see a slow steady build up, rather than an overnight explosion.
I don't have very many inbound links out there yet. But I dont know if it will be possible to wipe out my anchor text and replace it will all new words. For example, if I had a site about tennis, I could use "tennis rackets" or "rules of tennis" or even "tennis court locations" but the word tennis would have to be in every anchor text... do u think that the search engines would consider that spam?
No, if the anchor link is not exactly the same, or doesnt contain all the same words, I think your fine. There are many tools that will get you a word with the same or similar meaning and also tell you how searched theses words are, two that spring to mind are : wordtracker and Overture another good source of info is matt cutts (hes an insider to google) you can watch his videos at : video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9028425054136856586 I would watch all of his vids to get an idea of googles algos and SEO
thanks MPEA for your help and suggestions.. matt cutts seems to be a great source for knowledge.. i'm watching the vids now!
No problem, I get my info from others all over the place and just spread the word if i find it useful and truthful, hope you do the same and help others out here on digitalpoint. Just remember Google isn’t the only SE
I think you have the right idea. Use a lot of related keywords for your anchor text so the links are relevant to your site without appearing spammy. I wouldn't worry about it too much, just keep building good links.