Anchor text: Give your links extra weight

Anchor text.



No, it's not a tall sailing ship tale.



I'm talking about the anchor text in your incoming links.



Okay, you say, you'll bite. What's anchor text anyway?



I'm glad you asked that question (with a bit of prompting).



Anchor text is the wording that appears on another site, or on an internal page within your own site, on a link. It is what appears as wording on the link back to your site or blog.



That anchor text link is pointing to your blog or website, the same way your title or even just a written out URL, would also point to your site.



Here is an example.



Instead of the name of your blog, appearing on another blogs list of links, some other wording appears.



Let's say your blog is called, appropriately enough, "My Great Blog". That name doesn't tell the potential reader very much. It also doesn't tell the search engines much about the topics your blog covers either.



Instead, you choose to have your anchor text appear as "Tiddly Winks Advice". Now, your potential visitors will know your blog is about tiddly winks, and that you provide advice on the subject.



The search engines, like Google, MSN, Inktomi, AllTheWeb, AltaVista, and Yahoo can index your blog more efficiently. By that, I mean they can place your blog higher, in the search returns, for people hunting for "tiddly winks advice".



You must be careful not to overuse the selected anchor text, as Google in particular, may penalize your blog or website for doing so. Going overboard (ya gotta love that pun) with anchor text, can sink (not another pun!) your blog or website, in the search results.



Fortunately, many linkers to your blog or website, will simply use the title of your site, in the anchor text. Over use of anchor text shouldn't pose too much difficulty for you.



You can use anchor text internally in your website as well. Instead of pointing to a page, point to it by using the main keywords of that page's main topic.



If the page is about tiddly winks, place "tiddly winks" in the anchor text, for that page's link. The search engines will consider that page more relevant in searches for...you guessed it....tiddly winks.



Here is an example of how I point to this blog using anchor text:



Marketing and Public Relations - Wayne Hurlbert - Blog Business World



Note that the text points toward this blog. Along with the blog title is some more blog description and my name. The blog title is also included. I used the text to let my roller derby readers know that I had another business related blog.



The coding is taken directly from my roller derby blog.



Note the anchor text appears, in the sentence, the same way as I have written and placed it in the coding.



My other blog is called Wayne's Derby World. In that anchor text, I used the same coding, but changed the anchor text to show the blog title instead.



By using anchor text, you can help your site gain a few more readers by being more descriptive. You can do the same thing, with their approval if you prefer, for the blogs and websites to which you link.



You can help your site and theirs rise in the search engines as well. The external anchor text will make the sites appear more relevant to the search engines.



Give your incoming and internal links some weight.



And drop in some anchor text.