Anchor Text SEO

One aspect of link building that you may not be paying enough attention to is anchor text. Anchor text is the actual text for the links that you are building. The actual text and phrases you use for your links plays a critical role in your website’s SEO.

A prime example of its importance is John Chow, who managed to get ranked #2 for ‘Make Money Online’ in Google, mostly through the use of anchor text and link building. By encouraging his readers to review his blog and link to his website using ‘Make Money Online’ as the anchor text he was able to rank in Google in no time.

By paying attention to anchor text you can improve your SEO in no time. Below are a few tips:

Choose the Right Keyword/KeyPhrase
Ranking highly for a phrase that doesn’t get a lot of traffic doesn’t help you. Make sure you research the keywords you want to target before deciding on your anchor text. Use various keyword tools to find phrases that will bring you traffic.

Proper Length
Choosing the proper length anchor text is also important. Ranking for 1 or 2 word phrases will be much harder than a 3 or 4 word phrases. Conversely, it will do no good to rank for 6 or 7 word phrases which in most cases are not getting searched for that often. Do your homework and make sure your phrase is searched for and not overly long.

Harness Your Anchor Text
In John Chow’s case he was in almost total control of what anchor text people used when linking to his site. He encouraged his users to review his blog using specific anchor text. In return he promised a link back. Being able to control your anchor text is the most ideal case possible because you can use the exact phrase or phrases that you want.

However this isn’t always the case. In order to encourage the use of your chosen anchor text make sure you have it in your blog’s title. In many cases when people link to your website they will use the blog’s title as the link name.

Onsite Optimization
Besides having people link to your blog with your anchor text, it’s always a good idea to use your anchor text keyphrase within your site. By incorporating the keyphrase in post titles and posts you can help build keyword strength within your site.

Good Luck!

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