anchor text, what is it exactly and how do you write it best

[Patrick]

Hi,

I have been doing a search on here, but I still can't figure out what "anchor text" is exactly.. is it the text before a link that introduces the link to another website ?

I read in "search engine marketing" by Mike Graham, that the anchor text both of the internal links and external links is extremely important to rankings these days (for all search engines).

He also writes:
instead of writing: " for more information about blue widgets click here" we would gain much more relevance writing "you can get more information here about blue widgets".

Perhaps it is my english but I completely fail to see the point here. Why is one better than the other.. how should you phrase anchor texts then and what is the anchor text about as far as rankings are concerned.

Would appreciate any comments

Patrick

[highman]

Hi Patrick, I moved this to a more appropriate forum, anchor text:

<a href="widget.html">keyword anchor text</a>

I think the difference in the two statements, about blue widgets, is in coaxing the user to click on the link

[lots0cash]

The way I would do it is something like this:

<A HREF=”blue-widget.html” title=”Blue Widgets - Find information here”>Blue Widgets</A>


I don’t believe that people need to be told “click here” anymore, unless you want to use it as a “sales call to action” and that I think is over used and therefore makes it much less effective.

[Advisor]

Anchor text is the actual clickable part of your link.

Use keywords in the clickable part, as opposed to "click here" in the clickable part.

Does that make sense?

Jill

P.S. I think you mean Mike Grehan, not Mike Graham ;)

[Patrick]

Thanks for all the replies, it's clear now.

I am thinking if my company's name would have two keywords in it, then having other sites refer to my site even if it were just a link they give (like in a set of links) there would be automatically these two key words in the anchor text right ? (Plus the benefit of having the keywords in the title tags too). Just a metter of finding out with google/overture which keywords are most often used for my business and take the top two ones and put them in the title.

Thanks very much I enjoy this forum !

Patrick

[Advisor]

You got, Patrick! :cheers:

Jill