Try an Experiment
If you have a web site, try this experiment when you have some spare time. Pick a nonsense phrase, like bed happy meatball or anything equally silly. Make sure its something very unlikely to appear on a web page anywhere, and make sure its a phrase (not a single word). Also, make sure it does not appear on your own site.
Next, get a few friends or co-workers with web sites of their own to post a link to your site using that exact phrase (without the quotation marks) as the anchor text. Whats anchor text, you ask Its simply the word or words that form the clickable part of a link.
Now, wait a while. Make a note to yourself to check your web sites ranking in the results for a search of your chosen nonsense phrase at a major search engine in a month or two. Unless you picked a phrase that actually appears on other sites, youll find that your site is #1! Moreover, thats in spite of the fact that the chosen phrase does not appear anywhere on your actual web site. Think about that.
An infamous, large-scale example of this same test involved the phrase miserable failure. Some enterprising bloggers got together a few years ago and decided to link lots of sites to the official biography page for President George W. Bush at the whitehouse.gov site. The goal, of course, was to make that page show up in the #1 position whenever unsuspecting (or in this case, many suspecting) searchers typed in that phrase. It worked. (Side note: at last check, Michael Moore famous film maker and Bush detractor, was in the #2 position at Google for this same search). Again, keep in mind that the phrase miserable failure does not appear anywhere on either mans web site.
Is There a Point
OK, so why bother with this seemingly asinine experiment (thats actually been dubbed Googlebombing) Ahh, Grasshopper, for the lesson it imparts. Which is Well, it points to the power of anchor text in determining search engine ranking. And it has definite relevance to your activities as a webmaster.
Many of your fellow site owners - including a lot of them who run sites in direct competition with yours have never heard of anchor text. Some of you reading this may be unfamiliar with it. But, as should be clear now, anchor text plays a major role in search engine ranking positions.
In basic terms, it works like this
Search engines rely on links to help them ascertain both the theme of a given web site and its popularity. Knowing that, consider two scenarios. In the first, your site has built up a lot of links pointing to it, and each one has your domain name as the clickable part of the link (anchor text). Lets say your domain name is your companys name, JoeSmithBakery.com and you sell baking supplies. OK, great now your site will show up in the #1 position at the search engines whenever anyone searches for your domain name! Hmm. Think that one through. If they know your domain name, why would they need a search engine to find it
In the second scenario, you have lots of links pointing to your bakery site, but instead of the domain name as the anchor text, you wisely chose a phrase that lots of people search for, like baking supplies.
Easy question: which would you prefer being #1 at Google when people search for your domain name or being #1 when people search for baking supplies This is why the anchor text you choose for the links you build is so important.
A Plan of Action
Now, heres a simple plan of action to improve your sites link situation and search engine ranking going forward from this day
Step 1 Research Keywords
A great service is provided by the folks at wordtracker.com. They catalog search activity at the major engines, and then make available those numbers to the general public. You simply type in a word or phrase related to your sites theme, and wordtracker shows you the number of times that entry is being searched at the major search engines. Cool, huh The service will also give you a list of related terms, so you can look for other important search words to target.
Step 2 Pick a Few and Get Some Links
Compile a list of several search terms that are most closely related to your sites theme and that get searched for often. Its up to you, of course, but you should pick those phrases that get a few hundred to several thousand searches. These will be the terms you use in the anchor text of the inbound links you build from now on. Doing so will really increase your sites search engine traffic - once all your new links begin to boost your rankings.
Nothing Else Changes
Now, just carry on with your usual link building activities: reciprocal links, one-way links from directories and article distributions, etc. The only change is to make sure you choose a phrase from your list to use as the clickable part of the link you ask for (the anchor text). If you rotate your choices, your site will move up in the rankings for each phrase. The only downside is that youll be getting fewer links per phrase, so it may take longer for any single phrase to rank high.
Keep in mind that the phrases you pick will be popular, unlike those in the examples that began this article. To score high rankings, youll need to be diligent and get lots of links. Never stop! Over time, this strategy will really help your sites traffic, but it does take time. As the famous poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, famously wrote: All good things come to those who wait.
John Schwartz http://www.web-article-writer.com (all rights reserved)
John Schwartz - of - offers professionally written web site content and articles, as well as article distribution services to increase web site traffic and build link popularity. Visit us today for more information.
We can all very easily recognize the tremendous opportunities offered to us by using the internet to pursue business and other money making ventures, or even just for entertainment. However, when it comes down to actually maximizing the potential of that opportunity, we are not all as prepared as we might like to think. How do we take advantage of the many benefits that the internet has to offer This is a very good question, and internet specialists have been mulling over it since its creation. One thing that they can all agree upon, however, is the importance of search engine optimization (SEO) to effective marketing on the web.
SEO is among the most studied aspects of the internet. Since the nature of the marketing industry is so complex and uncertain, there has never been a time that a heated debate has not existed about how best to accomplish Search Engine Optimization.
So lets start with what we do know, and then well touch on the aspects that have been left to question. SEO does indeed help to position you higher within internet search engines and directories. Though it does involve keyword patterning within your text and other less obvious areas of your site and its content, it is generally accepted that when done properly, it will not harm the overall impact that you are trying to achieve with your sites marketing campaign.
Certainly, there are some gray areas as to when you are being effective, and when you are being destructive with your keywords. There is a certain subtle art to delivering the very best results both in marketing and in ranking. In this case, it is always wise to hire a professional with experience in creating quality SEO text and/or SEO site design.
Fortunately, though, there is a built in SEO quality gauge that almost all of us possess. This gauge is called common sense. If it seems too extreme, ridiculous, or noticeable, youre likely not doing much to benefit yourself. Whenever youre uncertain of your SEO efforts, just ask the following question has this made the internet a better place If yes, success. If no, keep working on your angle.
By creating effective SEO work, your completed site will appear welcoming and friendly to your site visitors. It demonstrates your respect for viewers on the internet who have come to see what your site has to offer.
As long as you remember that SEO copywriting is among the most complicated arts online, and is a challenge to have done well, youll be able to use that respect and understanding to dramatically improve your search engine position, and marketing efficacy.
All this said lets look at the basics of ANY SEO campaign. Of course each campaign will be different just as each website is different. There can be NO one price fits all mentality when dealing with SEO clients as there are many factors unknown. To give a cost upfront would be like a builder costing your new house without seeing the plans! This aside the basics of any campaign would be
Keyword Research of your chosen marketplace
On page optimization using 3 to 5 keywords or phrases per page
Meta Title tag containing no more than 3 of your keywords and phrases
Meta Description tag containing your main keywords around a description of your page or site
Meta Keywords tag containing all your main keywords
Alt image tag optimization using your main keywords
H1 H2 and H3 tags within your page copy
Certain Keywords in Bold
Certain Keywords in Italics
Certain Keywords underlined
Keywords in first 25 words of the page
Keywords in last 25 words of the page
A site map
Good internal page linking
Good external page linking to sites of relevance to your own
A quality link campaign to improve your link popularity
I could go on and on but you get the idea. For long term success with an internet based business you do need traffic from the search engines. No traffic from anywhere = No sales or customers. That said I would recommend either learning the art yourself or hiring a professional to work with you on your SEO campaign.
Mark Nenadic
Learn more about Web design, internet marketing and SEO.
Mark draws upon 10+ years of Marketing/SEO experience. He is proprietor at FifteenDegrees-North, where he provides Web design, Marketing, and SEO services. He is also the face behind FifteenDegrees-North, where you will find articles and resources to help with your marketing plans and Web promotions. Read Marks internet marketing and SEO strategy Blog Here