The Problem with Keyword Rich Anchor Text
Ask any SEO consultant to explain Google bombs and they will be able to show you how linking to a certain website with keywords in the anchor text propels that site higher and higher in the search results.
Websites in all industries use this tactic to rank highly for their target keywords – in essence it’s nice and simple. If you have a car insurance website you just need to attract lots of links with the anchor text “car insurance” and your rankings should improve.
The problem with this method is that Google claims to prefer natural links and how many natural links can you get with something like “cheap loans” as the anchor text? Not many is the answer. In fact Google could easily detect paid links simply by looking for keyword rich anchor text and flagging the links for manual review.
If you are buying keyword rich anchor text links then it is so easy for Google to devalue them that they are a very short term prospect.
One of the best methods for building keyword rich links we use is news and press releases, for example publishing a news article on your site stating that “50% of people from the UK don’t have car insurance” should get some natural links with “car insurance” and “UK” in the anchor text. In the future you might want to either keep the article live or, for maximum effect, 301 redirect the article to your sites homepage.
Great post Patrick. I think its also important to note that whilst google prefers natural link building, its also important not to use the exact same anchor text on every incoming link that you obtain for your website. That instantly sparks Google off, and is very easy to detect that there is something un-natural about that sites link building tactics.
Comment by Andy MacDonald - Blogging & Marketing Tips — March 5, 2008 @ 1:27 am
Very true patrick google can easily pick up on this sort of link building
Comment by SEO — March 25, 2008 @ 8:51 pm
Yep - I couldn’t agree more. It’s pretty obvious when you run across blog articles with obvious keywords linked out. The Googles are pretty bright these days
Comment by Aloha Nui Loa — June 17, 2008 @ 2:34 pm