215
text links from different sites. This will make it appear as natural linking to search
engines.
You probably shouldn?t let any more than 20-30% of your links have any specific
anchor text if you can control it. There are no set rules, but mixing it up will
prevent you from flagging spam filters that currently exist or may soon be added to
search engines.
When I get links into my SEO Book site, I frequently use the following anchor
text::
? SEO Book
? Aaron Wall
? Aaron Wall?s SEO Book
? Search Engine Optimization Book
? SEO Book: Search Engine Optimization
? sometimes I may use a few other variations such as: SEO Ebook, SEO
Blog, Search Engine Marketing Tips, or SEO News
? I also occasionally use what some would consider to be bad link text.
Sometimes using words like here, click here,
more natural.
? Requesting links without specifying the desired anchor text also helps
guarantee your link profile will have a bit of variety in it, since people
who are not told how to link will use various different anchor text
combinations.
You want to use a few semantically similar phrases and many anchor text variations
to make your anchor text look as natural as it can. Some people try to make
anchor text like this (with the following being one big link):
SEO, search engine optimization, placement positioning services
strategy, top ranked #1 Google, Yahoo!, MSN
But that is not how people normally link. It is usually better to use many short link
text groups than trying to get all of your keyword variations in every link.
My Link Profile is Less than Ideal
My site has hundreds of thousands of links pointing to it. Given that many links, I
should be able to own the market, but because I was so focused on brand building,
my anchor text profile is not as well mixed as it should be.
I never expected my site or my reputation to grow as quickly as they did. This
leads me to the point that if you think there is a chance your brand and reputation
may grow quickly, you may want to try to get good anchor text variation early on in
your link building. Later on, when lots of people link to you with your brand as the
anchor text, your site will have relevant anchor text for many other queries.
