Anchor Text
When developing a site it is crucial that you understand the concept of ‘anchor text’.
We have seen previously the importance of link building, directory submission and site promotion. We have also mentioned that on-page factors can play a significant role, such as the text you use for the title of the page, the description of the page, and in the page itself, both in the headings and the text.
The ‘glue’ that holds these items together is the anchor text used by other websites that link to yours. With your on-page factors you have described what the page is about - let’s assume ‘red cars’ is the theme of your page.
It is now necessary for google and the other search engines to be sure that your page really is an interesting page about ‘red cars’, before they include it in their search results.
Now you can’t necessarily be trusted as a judge of whether your page is the best possible on the subject - you might think it is, but you are biased, and perhaps don’t know that Mercedes-Benz have also written a page about red cars which is better than yours.
So google look at how many other websites are saying your page is a fine study of the subject. To do this they look how many sites include your website page address with the anchor text ‘red cars’. If lots of people, especially important people (ie high ranking sites) refer to your site whenever they talk about red cars, each of thos links to your site counts as a vote for you.
And the more votes you have, the higher you show in the search engine results. Now some people will say ‘go and read Fred’s Blog to find out about red cars’ with the link on other parts of the sentence, but most will say ‘go and read Fred’s Blog to find out about red cars‘.
The clickable text in the sentence is called the ‘anchor text’ and is how the search engines decide what your page is really about.
So, everytime you submit to a directory, or do a link exchange, or issue an article or press release, you need to remember this. Perhaps 50% of the time you would want to use the exact phrase ‘red cars’ as your anchor text, other times ‘cars’, ‘cars that are red’ etc since you must have variety in the links to your site if the links are to appear natural.