Anchored Backlinks - A Simple Guide
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Anchored backlinks are said to be key to any good SEO strategy. In fact, in some circles, anchored backlinks are said to be the be-all and end-all in SEO. Once you have done your on site optimization, it has been said that all you need to do is to build as many anchored backlinks as possible. Keep doing that, and the top spot in Google is a matter of time.
I would categorize the multiple ways you can get anchored backlinks into 3 areas:
Linking to Your Own Sites
Many people have been known to set up websites, blogs and other types of online real estate just so they can get guaranteed backlinks to their main site. Others will interlink between all their sites and pages.
An example of such a strategy will be to have one main site about your product, say doors. You can have a hub here on HubPages about the different type of doors available, and a squidoo lens talking about how to find a good door supplier, and blog that talks about all things doors. All of them will have anchored backlinks leading to your main site.
Of course it doesn't have to be just one hub, or one lens, or one blog, and you don't have to confine yourself to just these three types of resources. Do a search and you will find more resources than you will have time for.
But if you have an intention of building massive amounts of backlinks between your sites, you might want to spare a thought about giving Google a blueprint to which sites you own. For example, if you are monetizing using Adsense, you might want to consider a different monetization model for some of your sites. Or if you have many blogs, don't use blogger for all of them.
I won't get paraniod about it, but my point is just not to make it too obvious. Looking at it from Google's point of view. Which site would you rank higher? A site with a hundred webmaster-owned backlinks, or another site with a hundred backlinks from multiple sources?
Post Your Own Backlink
There are lots of places on the web that will allow you to put your own backlink on their site. Think about forums, blogs and web directories.
One thing you must consider when placing a link for SEO purposes is whether the link is "do follow". When blogs became popular some years back, many webmasters went around posting spammy comments in the blogs. Those comments had no real content and the only intention was an anchored backlink to the webmaster's site. It got so bad that Google announced that it will recognize a new attribute, called a nofollow attribute. When this attribute is attached to a link, that link will not count towards improving the destination site's search engine rankings.
To combat spam, many blogs and forums have adopted the use of this tag. So if you are posting for SEO purposes, do check first.
Getting Other People To Post Your Backlink
This is by far the most difficult and time consuming way to get anchored backlinks. But when done right, it offers the potential of easily getting hundreds of links with a single action.
I list below a few standard ways of how you can go about doing this, but bear in mind that the techniques are many and varied and you are really only limited by your imagination.
- Link Exchange. Find or form groups of webmasters interested in exchanging links. Normally, links exchanged will be on the home pages or between link directories. I would encourage looking into more innovative ways of exchanging links. You could consider asking the webmaster to change a small part of his content to include an backlink to you. Or, if the webmaster is running a blog, you could ask the webmaster to dedicate a blog post to your site.
- Link Bait. Generate content so good that the webmaster just have to link to you. Content that is humorous, controversial or downright weird would work well. And if you are out of ideas, just come out with great content.
- Offer Free Stuff. I remembered a web hosting company offering to give away a piece of software that they are selling in return for a link to their site. I don't know how much they lost in terms of sales, but I would think that a lot of the webmasters providing links might not have bought anyway.
- Give Away Something. But don't just give away something. If you are giving away web templates, make sure you have your site info at the bottom. Or if you are giving away an ebook, make sure your site is referenced somewhere in the ebook. You get the idea.
Conclusion
If anything, it is actually much easier to get anchored backlinks than in the past. In today's Internet, we are all so much more connected thanks to the social sites like Facebook, Twitter, Digg, etc. If you have something worthy of backlinks, it can be a simple matter of asking for one. You can reach a lot more people today with such a request than you can in the past, and good content should be rewarded with linkbacks.
Glossary
Anchor Text - The anchor text is the text used to link to another webpage. For example, when linking to my hub about the Hubble Ultra Deep Field Image, the anchor text is "Hubble Ultra Deep Field Image".
Anchored Backlink - This is simply a link from another webpage. This type of link will contain the keywords of the webpage in the anchor text. It might be more properly called a keyword anchored backlink. See the "anchor text" definition for an example of an anchored backlink to another webpage. Note that "Hubble Ultra Deep Field Image" is a keyword for that page.
Backlink - It is simply a link from another webpage.
Keyword - When optimizing for the search engines, you will first do some keyword research to see what words people use to search for information or products that your site has. These words are called keywords. Do note that keywords are exact phrases or words.
For example, backlink and backlinks are 2 different keywords. And anchored, backlink and anchored backlink are 3 separate keywords.
SEO - It stands for search engine optimization. It is the techniques used for getting a better ranking in the search engine results. Although usually not mentioned, Google seems to be the only search engine that this is carried out for. But they are THE search engine and when you get ranked on Google, the other engines will pick you up as well.
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Comments
No Problem. Hope it's useful.
Hello, wandererh. The info here is very useful. Many, many thanks! :)
Hi wandererh,
thanks for the very useful and informative article.
Dr Benson Yeung
Thank you, Cleopatra and Benson. :)
Very well written tips, wandererh.
It's true that a hundred webmaster-owned backlinks are worth much less than that from multiple sources. Google is smarter than what we think they are.
You are right. And I do wonder about the quality of those 100 resources. While I believe that webmaster owned backlinks do have some value, for the longer term, backlinks from other webmasters should also count as part of a overall strategy.
I have so much to learn, and so much that I do not understand. Your hub gives me hope. Thanks.
I know that it is a lot to take in. My advice would be to figure out what you want to do, do your research about how to best go about doing it, and do it.
You probably won't get it right the first time, but you will learn, and you will be much better the second time round. :)
, and the fact that a lot of the information out there is
This is great advice, thank you! You really laid it out in a way that is very easy to understand and very clear. :)
Normally I click on hubs about this sort of thing and my eyes roll up into my head and I wake up five minutes later staring into space thinking about unicorns and chocolate dipped celery sticks. Your hub didn't do that to me. I still don't know what an anchored link is as opposed to a regular link or a regular anchor (or is it a linkless anchor...) anyway, all in all nice work. (Stick a quick definition up there for dummies like me, or link to one so I don't have to look it up on my own :)
Thanks pgrundy. :)
Shadesbreath - In my opinion, unicorns and chocolate dipped celery sticks are great. Dreaming about them when reading hubs are not. Glad my hub didn't make you do that. :)
You read my mind. I was thinking of doing a hub on basic SEO and link to that, but I will put up a basic definition first.
Nice touch. I'm honored you would take suggestions from a unicorn dreamer. LOL. Rock on, bro.
It is our dreams that keep us alive. Without our dreams, we are nothing but the walking dead. Never met a unicorn dreamer though, but it takes all kinds. :)
Hi Wandererh, I'm with Shadesbreath on this. I try and try to understand SEO, which I really need to understand as a web writer. But man.... too many new terms and the rules keep changing!
I agree you've done an excellent job explaining here. Thanks for being a guru and for sharing your knowledge with us! MM
Wow, somebody used the G word on me. Although Internet marketing gurus do have a bad name in some quarters, I would take that as a compliment.
Actually, SEO is not that complicated - I'd probably do a hub on that. But you do need to understand the complicated sounding terms used. After all, they do need to make it sound complicated so that they can sell their SEO services. ;)
After all, they do need to make it sound complicated so that they can sell their SEO services. ;)
Couldn't have agreed more ;) Well said, G
:) Thanks for visiting, fayans.
Thanks for taking *some* of the mystery out of SEO and backlinks!
thanks, useful info!
Thanks JamaGenee and LondonGirl. :)
Thanks for the useful tips - but it does sound like a lot of work !
nice information, I had practice it in my hub.
Singular Investor - It is a lot of work, but the reward will be the top of the search engine listings for a competitive keyword. :)
prasetio30 - Hope you are getting good traffic. :)
good one buddy...its an important step for SEO
Thanks, great article. I'm sure that glossary will be great for the newbies!
nms - Thanks! :)
The Empire - Thanks! The glossary is thanks to Shadesbreath. Thinking of expanding it into a hub.
ahhh wandererh, I was waiting for this...thank you!!! I'm still learning.
Thanks Marisue. :) Actually, I'm rather surprised at the response. The info here is actually quite basic, although you might not find it presented in this way. Looks like I can do a series of hubs that will go into much more detail.
I am just getting into this world and loved the hub..
What is the difference between a standard link and an Anchored link?
The difference is that an anchored link contains your keyword in the anchor text while in a standard link, the anchor text might not contain your keywords.
Thanks. Its a good info. I'll try.
Please do. And you can come back and we can compare notes. :)
Yes....do more!! repeating basics is a good strategy -- I can always learn something different each time, or something gets reinforced!! =)) good work!!
Will do. Should take me 2 or 3 days at least. Stay tuned. :)
Good stuff Wandererh!
Nice hub my friend, how do you get your key phrases ?
I just thought that your readers would like to see the anchor text formula which is...
<a href='http://your website url goes here' target='_blank'>your anchor text phrase goes here</a>
I would also advise your readers to always use their domain url aswell as anchor text phrasing when linking back to their own websites.
Thanks wanderh for this info - I can actually understand what I now need to do ! I am going to start with the anchor text step and progress from there - thanks again ..cheers
infinitepay - Thanks!
badcompany99 - You hit the nail right on the head, but that, as they say, is the subject of another hub. But I can leave you the url of the Google tool which should be pretty useful.
Paul Profitt - You are right. Thanks to MarisueWrites, I will be doing a series on basic SEO, which is all I know anyway. ;) I cover the selection of their keyword phrase and domain name.
ajcor - Thanks! Let me know if you get stuck, and maybe I can do a hub on that. :)
I'll take your piece of advice. Great article!
Thanks efa_09! :)
Thank you for the great explanation on anchor text and backlinks. I always thought I understood but was not completely sure.
If you would? I could use a little feedback on improving my site on blogger. Could you give me a little feedback?
The site is http://free-cash-making-websites.blogspot.com
You seem to be promoting quite a few programs, akycrawler. Maybe you can concentrate your efforts on 2 or 3 of the programs that really work and promote the hell out of them?
BTW, whether intentionally or not, you gave me an insight on the "Post Your Own Links" category. :)
great hub~
Do you have a feeling about if you should vary your anchor text, or stay consistent?
Info Help - Thanks! :)
tomlord40 - Definitely! That's probably one of the easiest way Google can detect a link exchange so it will be a good idea to vary your anchor text.
And by doing that, your site can rank higher for other keywords as well. :)
I found your topic when I was looking for some ways to build backlinks.
It's seem to be hard and never finish to me.
Thank for your writing.
You are exactly right, V.C. There are tools and techniques that makes your tasks easier, but the more competitive your keyword, the more the competition. :)
Very helpful. I used a program that helped bookmark my site at many ( 50 +) sites in a manner of an hour. It pays off in the long run to take the time to create links.
Sounds interesting. Probably something I should look into. :)
Thanks for the tips on backlinks and keywords. All of this takes lots of time, doesn't it? Later!
Yes it does take time. Just do one or two a day, and find a way to make the process faster. :)
you have some useful information here. Thanks for sharing. lol
Thanks kmackey32! :)
I especially liked the fact that you included a glossary which helped me understand.
You have to thank Shadesbreath for that. I am going to do a more comprehensive glossary as a hub but he gave me the idea to include a short one for this hub. :)
thanks a lot... very useful tips for me and new to SEO....
This hup was to the point & very detailed .
I learned alot that will be tweaked in my YOU INC Business model from this informative hub.
Warren Little
Thanks Warren and Muthu. The information is really all out there but I try to put it in as simple as I can.
Nice Article.
Thanks karmadir. :)
this is some nice information. i have a question however, a lot of seo people say that backlinks to your site/s shouldn't have the same anchor text, for it to not look suspicious to google. is it ok if i use say, a synonym of a part of my keyword? will it give the same link juice as the exact keyword (as anchor text) does? for example, in this comment of mine i used the anchor text "poea abroad jobs" (my keyword is poea jobs abroad). could i instead use "poea work overseas" and still get the same effect?
crap didn't notice hubpages has nofollow :(
Although your posting is merely for SEO purposes, you do bring up an interesting point. It will be worth looking into as I think that Google will do something like that in future, if it is not already doing it. :)
Excellent sound advice on backlinking. Thank you!
Thanks Increased Website Traffic! :)
Thanks for the info but a quick question.
How do you know if a site is no follow?
The nofollow attribute is applied to a individual link and not to the whole site. You can determine if a link is nofollow by actually viewing the source or the html for the site.
For me, I use a Firefox plugin called SEO Firefox. It's easy to use and relatively troublefree. But you will need to be using Firefox as your web browser.
The plugin is available here:
I´ve been reading this hub and I found a lot of good tips. Nice hub!
Thanks Marketing Sucesso! :)
You are welcome. :)
wonderful post,but to implement first one is quite difficult
If you are talking about setting up your very first site, I do agree. But it should be much simpler now with all the tools and templates and what-not available.
very nice hub. Basic terms of html and SEO but you presented nicely. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you, Hoop-A-Joo! :)
Getting traffic through anchored backlinks are worth it, atleast for long term purpose. You've made it simplified! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for dropping by, Andrew0208! :)
I enjoyed reading this. I have to say tho that I am still struggling to get my head around the dofollow and nofollow links? I can see that bloggers want to keep their site from being spammed and will make posted links nofollow, but I just don't get why its nofollow and how a person can tell.
*scratching head*
You can determine if a link is nofollow by actually viewing the source or the html for the site, or you can use a Firefox plugin called SEO Firefox. It's easy to use and relatively troublefree. But you will need to be using Firefox as your web browser.
Great info - thank you. I have been using Spyglass to see competitors backlinks.
SEO Spyglass seems to be an awesome tool. I will have to look into it when I find the time. :)
kerryg says:
6 months ago
Thanks for answering my request!