Keyword phrases as anchor text?

[rthgreen]

I'm optimizing a particular keyword for my site and have been using this keyword as the anchor text to title my links for all my link building so far. I'm doing this to try and rank high with that keyword, but if all my links have the same anchor text, will that be seen as unnatural and therefore not as beneficial as mixing up my anchor text? So this is why I'm wondering if it's better to use different anchor texts, perhaps such as phrases that include your target keyword in them? Would that be more effective? For example, instead of "skydiving" have the anchor text be "skydiving lessons" or "learn how to skydive" but the URL directs to the same page.

[dbinto]

Do some research on the term and keep changing the anchor text. You'd be surprised on what terms might actually be easier to generate some traffic in the short term. From your example even spliting up the term would help sky diving vs skydiving.

So yes on changing up the anchors but do some research on what you should use.

[roger_d]

Nothing looks less natural than having 80% of your links with the same anchor text. You have the right idea for anchor text. Use the same type of concept for on page seo to by not making the page titles and headings exactly the same either.

Page relevance where the link comes from is key too. Inbound links from other domains that are topical (skydiving is in page title/heading/body) are the best ones for your core keyphrase anyway.

[rthgreen]

Thanks for all the help. So let's say a site agrees to link to your site and when they put up your link, instead of the main keyword you've been optimizing your site for "skydiving," they instead write "skydiving lessons" as the anchor text. That would actually be better since it's more natural, plus it does include our main keyword within the whole anchor text as well. Is it safe to assume that?

[Cricket]

You need a little of both.

[webcosmo]

Thats how its supposed to be. Just make sure you dont overdo that; then you may get penalized for keyword stuffing.

[Atl-FredRoe]

Yes, vary your anchor text. As well try to go a little deeper into your site if you can too. Having deep links into a specific page on your site often looks a little more natural than 1,000 links saying the same thing and pointing to the same exact page.

Also keep in mind, you can add even more "keywords" to the mix by how you internally link on your website. So, play with that as well.

[davidgeo]

You need to have the anchor text spread equally for all the Keywords you are targeting. Both in Internal links and External Links. As Search Engines started using LSI its always better to optimize for a relevant set of keywords than for a single keyphrase. If we keep on optimizng a site for single keywords, we may have a change of getting a result of over optimizing from SE's . (Not in top SERPs)

[MrCat]

Varying your anchor texts would also help your site rank for other key phrases. I suggest to always include your main keyword in your anchor texts.

[aira]

^I agree.

Variations of anchor texts is beneficial for your site. It can help you further in KW optimization (to rank on your target KWs)

[lmsportal]

ofcource it helps, first of all at the initial stage, you need to start building links with the anchor text as your title of the index page,
Than you can have variations in building links for your website.

[progenic]

Anchor text is really a great help in optimizing your site but, you must always plan your anchor text for your site.

[skysoldier]

Your target keyword on your anchor text and proper off-page then you'll see a good result!

[coolguy27]

Anchor Text Enhances the Relevance of the Target Page

Note that the keywords in anchor text enhance the relevance of the target page pertaining to the keywords used. While the relevance of the page containing the anchor text is also enhanced to some degree (because of relevant keywords appearing on that page), the real gainer is the target page URL.

By using this knowledge to build the relevance of each page of your site, through optimized anchor text containing important keywords, relevant to the theme of such pages, from other pages of your site...

[coolguy27]

Originally Posted by progenic

Anchor text is really a great help in optimizing your site but, you must always plan your anchor text for your site.

A really great help in optimization if you use it properly... Variation of anchor text also works as what aira have said..

[francis84]

If you want to rank in a particular KW, used that said KW always as your achor text anywhere you link in.

[nica26]

Yes i agree with all of you guys...my answer is the same...
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