Basics: anchored text and internal links

anchored text and internal links

[clarksc3]

I have been reading many post here in "Google News" about "anchored text and internal links". I apparently missed the 1st chapter on this. Can someone please give me the basics of what this is and how it affects my Google Ranking?

Is is when you create a link to Widgets.com and labled the hyperlink "Buy Widgets Here"?

Thank you,
Clark

[fathom]

Targeted keyword is >> widgets <<

Bad

Widgets.com sells, buys, and trades widgets [domain.com]

Better

Widgets.com [domain.com] sells, buys, and trades widgets.

Generally the best

Widgets.com sells, buys, and trades widgets [domain.com].

[John_Caius]

Why is the first one bad?

[DaveN]

Because the inbound anchor does not want to be diluted with non keywords like "sells" "buys" "and" "trades"

you are try to tell google what keyword is important to your site and also trying to tell your prospective customer what your site does, so option 3 is bang on.

on really competitive keywords you will need to look at the proximity of the over keywords around the link

DaveN

[fathom]

Exactly!

Adding... "widgets" may in fact not be the keyword or keyphrase being precisely targeted.

"Buy widgets" might be or "sell widgets". But it's difficult to target both so the anchors provide the highest common denominator between "all your keyphrases" thus making it easier to target more.

Buy, sell, trade, Blue, red, green, how to, etc. are generally unique page content... the anchor is relevant to all.

[edited by: fathom at 10:39 pm (utc) on Jan. 7, 2003]

[Brian]

If I was doing a big push on blue widgets, I would create a "blue widgets basics" or "discover blue widgets" page, or somesuch in a subdirectory mydomain.com/widgets/ calling the file blue-widgets.htm.
Then I would create 10 lower level pages widget-history.htm widget-sizes.htm widget-sex.htm etc etc. Or better still (if you don't need to recognize your filenames or can keep a list somewhere) blue-widgets-1.htm, blue-widgets-2.htm etc. (If your keywords arn't too long). And on each of those I would link (in addition to the homepage) to blue-widgets.htm with the link text (anchor text) reading "blue widgets basics" or "discover blue widgets", or whatever you chose in the first place.

Each of the pages must be genuinely content-rich. This is where you have to deal with the problem of creating 10 pages (or so) that don't make you look like a dickhead and destroy your business should people read them (although for the most part people don't), or infringe the copyright of others.

If you seriously have something to impart about blue widgets and format it along these lines, you will do surprisingly well.

[John_Caius]

Thanks. :) That's really enlightening - my understanding of this dark and mysterious art takes another step forward!