Anchor Text - Backlinks And The Magic
Potion
By Christopher Lees
What is an anchor text? An anchor text is a word or phrase
that acts as a link. You know, the blue highlighted words
that you can click on. Usually an anchor text provides a link
to useful information related to the content of the article.
However, if you understand how search engines view an
anchor text you can use them to your advantage.
(continued below ...)
Potion
By Christopher Lees
What is an anchor text? An anchor text is a word or phrase
that acts as a link. You know, the blue highlighted words
that you can click on. Usually an anchor text provides a link
to useful information related to the content of the article.
However, if you understand how search engines view an
anchor text you can use them to your advantage.
(continued below ...)
| Anchor Text - Backlinks |
An anchor text tells a search engine what a page is
about. When a search engine sees an anchor text it
assumes that the text is related to the page content.
For example: if you write an article about growing
tomatoes but you have "cow manure" as an anchor
text, the search engines will think that your article is
about cow manure. But if you have the words "growing
tomatoes" as an anchor text then the search engines
will assume your article is about growing tomatoes.
Savvy website or blog owners will write articles to
distribute among the different article directories and
thus secure lots of backlinks to their site, but not just
any backlink. Thats not good enough.You want super
backlinks and for that you'll need to make wise use of
anchor texts. Say, in the resource box of your article you
will definitely want to use an anchor text to link back to
your site. If your site is named "Growing Tomatoes"
then don't use "click here" as an anchor text! Use the
name of your site. Although lining your articles with
anchor texts leading back to your website is usually
discouraged in writing circles it is OK to do it when the
link (to your site) actually does provide relevant
information directly related to the article.
For those of you wondering what a backlink is it's just
an incoming link to your site. So say I visit your site and
I like it and I post a link from my site to your site then
you'll have a backlink from me. Backlinks from sites
that are relevant to your site and are in your niche are
more valuable than a link from a site that is in a totally
different niche. That's why writing articles as an expert
in your niche is a great way to drive targeted traffic to
your site.
If you are writing articles about growing tomatoes and it
gets published, it'll be published in the gardening
section of whatever sites publish it, and the visitors
coming to your site will naturally be interested in your
niche. Targeted visitors.
Lets not confuse backlinks with reciprocal links.
Reciprocal links are created when you trade links with
a site. For instance if you and I put each others links on
our sites then those are reciprocal links and they are
less valuable in the eyes of the search engines. Article
advertising creates backlinks and thats why everyone
is so actively involved in it. It works wonders!
You can actually keep track of how many backlinks you
have with http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com. Simply
type your url in the search bar and click explore. When
your results are displayed click "inlinks". You'll see a
display featuring all links coming into your site. As the
number of backlinks increases your site ranking will
increase too, especially on Google.
one last tidbits here...your anchor text should be a
keyword for your site, not necessarily the name of your
site (but thats usually a good idea) but a keyword. And
on top of that if you enter your anchor text with the
<a href=" tag"
the search engines will like it better than if your just
use the handy link button. If you include the same
keyword in the title of your article and also lace the
content with it then you have the ingredients of the
magic potion. Christopher Lees
about. When a search engine sees an anchor text it
assumes that the text is related to the page content.
For example: if you write an article about growing
tomatoes but you have "cow manure" as an anchor
text, the search engines will think that your article is
about cow manure. But if you have the words "growing
tomatoes" as an anchor text then the search engines
will assume your article is about growing tomatoes.
Savvy website or blog owners will write articles to
distribute among the different article directories and
thus secure lots of backlinks to their site, but not just
any backlink. Thats not good enough.You want super
backlinks and for that you'll need to make wise use of
anchor texts. Say, in the resource box of your article you
will definitely want to use an anchor text to link back to
your site. If your site is named "Growing Tomatoes"
then don't use "click here" as an anchor text! Use the
name of your site. Although lining your articles with
anchor texts leading back to your website is usually
discouraged in writing circles it is OK to do it when the
link (to your site) actually does provide relevant
information directly related to the article.
For those of you wondering what a backlink is it's just
an incoming link to your site. So say I visit your site and
I like it and I post a link from my site to your site then
you'll have a backlink from me. Backlinks from sites
that are relevant to your site and are in your niche are
more valuable than a link from a site that is in a totally
different niche. That's why writing articles as an expert
in your niche is a great way to drive targeted traffic to
your site.
If you are writing articles about growing tomatoes and it
gets published, it'll be published in the gardening
section of whatever sites publish it, and the visitors
coming to your site will naturally be interested in your
niche. Targeted visitors.
Lets not confuse backlinks with reciprocal links.
Reciprocal links are created when you trade links with
a site. For instance if you and I put each others links on
our sites then those are reciprocal links and they are
less valuable in the eyes of the search engines. Article
advertising creates backlinks and thats why everyone
is so actively involved in it. It works wonders!
You can actually keep track of how many backlinks you
have with http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com. Simply
type your url in the search bar and click explore. When
your results are displayed click "inlinks". You'll see a
display featuring all links coming into your site. As the
number of backlinks increases your site ranking will
increase too, especially on Google.
one last tidbits here...your anchor text should be a
keyword for your site, not necessarily the name of your
site (but thats usually a good idea) but a keyword. And
on top of that if you enter your anchor text with the
<a href=" tag"
the search engines will like it better than if your just
use the handy link button. If you include the same
keyword in the title of your article and also lace the
content with it then you have the ingredients of the
magic potion. Christopher Lees
|
