1. Getting your Website out of the Jungle Today we’re going to go over Link Text which is also know as Anchor Text.
2. Optimizing Link Text Links within your website and links from other websites are a great way to tell the search engines what your page is about. Writing optimized link text is a great way of accomplishing this as well. Below is an example of one of the worst ways to write your link text and this way has been used for years: “ Thank you for visiting our website. Click here to register today!” As you can see, the owner of this site would want you to click there but what does that link text tell the search engines? It tells them that the page you are linking to should be about clicking here and not about registering. That’s from the perspective of a search engine.
3. Step #1 – Use Keywords One of the best ways to enhance and optimize your link text is to determine what the page you are linking to is about – it’s theme. Once you have figured that out you can start to write your optimized link text. We usually go by the following rule: If the page is about flower gardening, the title is about flower gardening and the name of the page is Flower-Gardening.html then the link to that page should to some degree or another have flower gardening in it. Example: “ Welcome to our website. After you register your gardening account you can visit our flower gardening section which will help you refine your gardening skills.”
4. Step #2 – Action Words Of course the word “ click here ” is an action word but sadly enough the two words don’t adequately describe the link or the page it is linking to. Besides “ click here ” as link text there are other much more descriptive ways of describing a link with action words – one has to be crafty but it eventually becomes second nature. Example: Register your free account today and start saving on shipping. Subscribe to our mailing list for weekly specials and product updates. Make sure you purchase the vacuum attachments that come at extra cost.
5. In Closing As you should be able to tell by now, links and link text is very important when it comes to SEO. Each and every link in your site or to your site from another one can be used to help describe what your page is about. In the end, taking care to optimize your link text, in line with the pages they’re linking to will definitely improve your rankings in the search engines and bring more traffic your way. Don’t over do it though. Do not make all the links to your pages have the same link text. Change it up a little. For example, if you were linking to your register page you could have the following in different areas of your site or off-site. “ Register today”, “ Register now” , “Be sure to register for free” , etc.