As linking is extremely important to the ranking success of your site, the anchor text of those links is equally as important. Anchor text allows a webmaster the ability to identify a page with a keyword phrase and this in turn indicates to search engines what key terms the linked page should rank for. Anchor text can work for you and the following explains a few tips on how to rank through anchor text placement.

By now even the budding SEO should know that you do not link to a page using text like “click here”. This simply does nothing to help your results. Instead, keyword research should be undertaken to find popular search terms and hence build your anchor text portfolio. This process should be done at least yearly as industry terms and search behavior often change.

Now that you are equipped with an arsenal of keywords you are ready to use them as anchor text when you place links in directories, submit articles and press releases, blogs, etc. The key here is to make sure that, when placing anchor text, it is varied and mixed. Using the same keyword phrase over and over will look manipulative to most search engines. This is in part due to “google bombing” by individuals who want to quickly rank for a term by repeatedly using identical anchor text. It is also important to vary the destination pages. This helps to expand your ranking potential as well as reduce the potential for engines to view your intentions as manipulative.

Using a mixed set of keywords for your anchor text aids in your pursuit to rank for multiple targeted terms. Also, anchor text research shows many sites that may have a deficient use of a keyword in the page copy can still rank highly for a given keyword. This shows the power of anchor text and how it can work for you. This is a plus for sites that are Flash-heavy or image-heavy.

The downside to all of this is that usually when a third party places a link to your site, they typically place anchor text consisting of your branded name. This still provides a valuable link to your site but does not work optimally for you as you probably already rank highly for your branded key terms. With this being said, remember that when you ask (or beg) for a link from someone you can provide the code structure to implement in the hopes of receiving your intended anchor text.

Now you have learned how to make anchor text work for your site. The key elements to take away are to mix up anchor text, mix up the destination pages, and as always link, link, link.