Text Link to My Site

...does the text matter?

[Emperor]

Hi guys,

Let's say my site is called "Blue Fish" (two words), when people text link to me does it matter what text they use: <a...>Blue Fish</a> or <a...>Bluefish</a>. I mean does it make a difference for my placement in the SEs?

Thanks.

[willybfriendly]

It does. Anchor text is very important.

A classic example is to search for french military victories. Hit the "i'm Feeling Lucky" button and look at where you land very carefully.

It is anchor text that made that work.

WBF

[Animated]

in my opinion its even more important of the number of limnks or the PR.

[buckworks]

On the other hand, some people feel it's wise to have some variety in the anchor text that points to your site, because it's more natural. As long as you have enough links that say "Blue Fish" to reinforce your on-page keyword focus, it's good to have other things in the mix.

If someone linked to you with the anchor text, "Cool Site about Fish" and someone else linked to you with "Blue Aquarium Stock" those would both support the "Blue Fish" theme with the advantage of not being too "matchy-matchy".

[SuccessfulAdvice]

It is very important! You want to make sure that your anchor text for the site called "Blue Fish" is your main keyword or your secondary keyword.

It also helps if you are linking to sites that hvae a high page rank.

[willybfriendly]

On the other hand, some people feel it's wise to have some variety in the anchor text that points to your site,

Most easily accomplished by allowing other webmasters to link to you as they wish, with the anchor text they choose. It will usually reflect the theme of your site if the link is to the home page, or the subject of the page if it is to an inner page.

Which reminds me, don't forget the value of deep links. In my experience, deep links will not only bring traffic of their own, but they will reinforce the effects of your own internal linking.

To reinforce buckworks idea, we have a directory that accepts free submissions. When a submission is approved an automated email goes back to the person suggesting that they link to our site. The email will randomly contain one of four suggested anchor phrases.

Only about 3 in 10 will bother to link back. But, the anchor text tends to get mixed up, and the ratio of recip to one way links is always changing. Seems like this is of help from what I can tell, at least in our niche.

WBF