subject: Anchor Text [print this page] Most likely when you start getting into seo you hear about backlinks and keywords very often, but there is something that can help even though it's quite simple compared to most things seo. I'm talking about anchor text. What is Anchor Text? Anchor text is a word or series of words that you use to link to another page or website. It's a very helpful little thing that will make good improvements on your website. How can it do this for your website you ask? It's very simple.
Ever think of another way to use keywords on your site? Well this is another way to use your keywords. Why do you want to use these keywords as anchor text? The reason is because if you use keywords then they have a bigger impact on your web ranking. The text that you use for the url makes the link more relevant since it's linked using a keyword from your site. It may be a bit confusing, but trust me. Having backlinks like this impacts those keywords greatly and gives a good boost to your website.
Imagine anchor text as something that defines the url. Whatever you put as anchor text tells the search engines what it's about. If you put "knives" as an anchor text then that's what search engines look at. This is why anchor text plays a big role in backlinks. Not only this, but if you have other sites that found you and just put a link to you with your url, it is best to ask them if they can use a certain word so it does make the link more relevant for you. It's not unusual to ask this of others that link to your site.
One issue I have is the way search engines pick this up. For if every backlink you place is a keyword that you use then the search engines may get suspicious. You have to remember you don't want to cause any suspicion when using anchor text. It's not wrong to use anchor text, it's just the idea of spamming them that isn't good. Then again, it's pretty much the same as backlinks. You don't want to spam backlinks over the internet, but let it grow slowly. All of this is done to make sure that you're effectively using white hat seo methods.
It's a simple yet effective optimization technique and it doesn't require much to do as you just use what you already have. Other things take longer, but no tools are required for this other than keeping track of your backlinks. Backlinks and keywords are the two most effective tools you have and when you combine them it gives you a greater result that helps to boost your website ranking.
So now that you know what anchor text is about. There is more to learn and plenty of ideas to look at for seo that you can use in search engine optimizing methods. Keywords play a big part in it, but using them in different ways makes the difference. Experiment and see what works for you.
