Every website owner knows the importance of linkbuilding when it comes to making their site successful, but most are unaware of just how much of an artform it really is. In the quest to build a substantial amount of links many people resort to link spamming, and other practices which are a literal waste of time and money. The problem with link spamming is that it does not look natural in all-seeing eyes of the search engine, because they appear online too quickly and they are usually directed towards new domains.
Most of the time a link spamming campaign will simply set off a red flag to the search engines, and the site will be penalized for having low quality backlinks online. This can be corrected overtime, but it will take a lot of high quality backlinks which are hosted on authoritative sites in your niche. While many webmasters realize that quality manual linkbuilding is the way to go, they don’t understand how these links should be constructed.
What is an Anchor Text
An anchor text is a word or phrase that is used to represent a link. It is generally used to make a long unattractive URL appear as a more appealing word or phrase that is far more likely to be clicked. After all, most people are much more susceptible to the term “Click Here” rather than a URL that is 50 characters long and contains a long string of nonsensical numbers and letters. Together the anchor text and the URL combine to create a hyperlink, which will bring the user to the intended online destination. However, a lot of people don’t understand what their anchor text should look like, hence the common appearance of the phrase “Click Here.”
The Proper Way to Structure an Anchor Text
The proper way to use an anchor text is to use a word or phrase that best describes the links destination URL. For example, if the link URL brings the user to a site about Ping Golf accessories, then you would use the anchor text “Ping Gulf Accessories.” This not only grabs the attention of the user and causes them to click on the link, it also lets the search engines know what is behind that link, and thus gives it a better ability to index that site for that particular keyword. Thus, you need to be focusing on particular keywords that your site is optimized for, and these keywords need to be in all of your anchor texts that are spread across the web.
Anchor Text and Link Exchanges
Structuring an anchor text link to your likings is simple when you own the web property that the anchor text link is hosted on. However this is not always the case. So, how do you control the anchor text that is used on third-party sites to represent your site’s URL? You offer an incentive by engaging in the practice of link exchanging with authority sites in your niche. Just as you need high quality backlinks form authority sites in your niche other webmasters also need this same commodity. Offer them a premium spot on your site for their link, and tell them they can have the anchor text display whatever they’d like. This will make it easier for you to create a substantial online presence using the anchors text of your choice.
