Anchor text is nothing more than the text you click on in a link. It has great SEO value. It IS your keyword. So those of you trying to rank for specific keywords in SEO, remember, DON'T' OVER USE A KEYWORD IN YOUR ANCHOR TEXT.
Please understand that most links to content online don't have to be "keyword perfect".
On that subject, I'd like to mention that I tend to optimize on a ten to one ratio. Meaning any keyword I want to anchor for I am going to find ten (or more) long tail keywords for my SEO efforts and content. NEVER will I use keyword1 over and over again and again. In fact I actually like to 'water down' my SEO to hide it from Google, say with article marketing.
Then, I am going to switch gears, use a different SEO tactic and use the same keywords all over again.
The reason why I like to water down my SEO: A lot of SEO experts are hypothesizing that exact match anchor text might have been a big flag for the Penguin update. It's important to diversify your anchor text so the search engines don't have any reason to suspect that you might be trying to manipulate the SERPs.
Further, for those of us that are risk takers: Branded keywords are probably going to make up a large percentage of your link portfolio, but you don't want to rely too heavily on a short list of targeted keywords (and please don't use CLÍCK HERE as anchor text; it has no SEO value) for your links. Much like with optimizing your content, there is no "right" number of times to use a particular keyword or keyword phrase as your anchor text.
So when you start thinking about keywords for your anchor text, start with the money keywords and throw in a lot of long tail and English keywords as well, the stuff a human might use, but unfortunately it cannot be misspelled nor can it make nonsense. Sadly, that is not how people search but if you're going to be embedding the text as links in your content, this is what you must do.
At some point I know you're going to start saying $#!@#$%! Google. Just like me. But you'll have to get used to working your SEO better and smarter. They know that Google is a machine. They know humans manipulate machines. But the level of manipulation? It got a little out of hand. Hence we have to be very wise and very natural when it comes to creating words for anchor text links in our content.
If we have too many backlinks with the same keyword in ratio to other keywords and text we have pointing to our site, what is it called? It's called spamming.
Right now, as of this writing, Google HAS NOT gotten it right with their anti-spam update. The only thing they've gone after are small sites relevant to the subject that they are relevant for. And every time they do an update this happens. They key to survive here is basic marketing. You're trying to drive visitors to your site. Period. So repurpose your content in many ways, increase your keyword list and focus on a pattern and style of keyword anchor text linking that fits well into the human eye and average reader. This may very well be the only way to survive the Google "update."
Backlink Strategy: Successful Offline Backlinking Tips Backlink Tool: What Is Anchor Text and Why Is It Important for Link Building? Why Should I Care About Directory Guidelines?
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