The Power Of Anchor Text
| "It is entirely possible to achieve top
ranking for extremely competitive keywords without any hint of
on-page-elements SEO."
-John Scott
|
Successful search engine optimization employs many factors. However, one of
the most important factors is the anchor text of inbound links. Because Google,
among other search engines, puts a significant amount of weight on the anchor
text of inbound links, anchor text can be a decisive factor when going after top
ranking on extremely competitive search terms.
Precisely how powerful is anchor text of inbound links? It is entirely possible
to achieve top ranking for extremely competitive keywords without any hint of
on-page-elements SEO.
Monster.com currently sits in the #1 spot for the search term Jobs. The word
"jobs" does not even appear on that page in text form; the only occurrence is
once in the form of ALT text.
Search Google for Computers. At this time, six of the top ten pages do not
contain the word Computers in the page copy. They are there due solely to anchor
text of inbound links.
Search Google for Profit. At this time, 7 of the top ten pages do not contain
the word Profit in the page copy. They are there due solely to anchor text of
inbound links.
Search Google for Promote. At this time, 5 of the top ten pages do not contain
the word Promote in the page copy. They are there due solely to anchor text of
inbound links.
Search Google for Advertise. At this time, 6 of the top ten pages do not contain
the word Advertise in the page copy. They are there due solely to anchor text of
inbound links.
Search Google for Click. At this time, 9 of the top ten pages do not contain the
word Click in the page copy. They are there due solely to anchor text of inbound
links.
Search Google for webhosting. At this time, four of the top ten pages do not
contain the word webhosting in the page copy. They are there due solely to
anchor text of inbound links.
Search Google for hits. At this time, the top three pages do not contain the
word hits in the page copy. They are there due solely to anchor text of inbound
links.
Do a search for exit. All of the sites on the first page are there due solely to
anchor text of inbound links.
Same thing applies when you do a search for leave, for which Yahoo! is listed in
the #1 spot. Yahoo is also #1 for the search term exit, due solely to the anchor
text of hundreds of mature content sites.
Use
So how do you, as an SEO, utilize the power of anchor text? The easiest - most
cost effective - way is to choose a descriptive name for your site, and by
descriptively naming your folders and files.
DomainsWe are currently analyzing data from market research into consumer behavior in
regard to domain names. The completed analysis will be published in an article
entitled Descriptive Domains for SEO. As a preview of things to come, let me say
that preliminary data shows descriptive domains - keyword domains, that is - to
benefit from a much higher CTR than non-descriptive domains.
File NamingLooking through the traffic logs of websites we maintain is a daily chore. Early
detection of shifts in search engine ranking is a must in this business. One
thing I've often noticed is search strings containing words that appear neither
on the page, nor in anchor text of inbound links - except where the URL of the
page has been used as anchor text. This is where we see the benefit of
descriptive file naming.
To give a poor example, I recently noticed this search string in the traffic
logs of Quality-Web-Hosting.net: "quality PHP search engine optimization"
But those words don't appear in the link text of inbound links! Unless, of
course, you use the URL itself as link text:
www.quality-web-hosting.net/search_engine_optimization.php.
As one of the most powerful search engine optimization tactics,
we believe that link-building
should be a high priority in any search engine optimization campaign.
by John Scott Internet-Marketing-Research
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