Safe Anchor Text for link building

[maha]

If my site is www.mikeswidget.com

What are the "Google Safe" anchor text for link building. I've read the brand, domain names are safe, regardless of quantity. Google won't penalize you. Is this correct?

Are these anchor text consider safe for link building?

1) www.mikeswidget.com
2) mikeswidget.com
3) mikeswidget
4) mikes
5) mike
6) widget
7) mikes widget

If I plan on building 100's of links, which "anchor text" are safe and which are not?

thanks guys

[simonmc]

The only safe link is one that someone adds to you of their own accord and using the anchor text they choose.

All your link building is dangerous regardless of anchor text if you are building these links yourself in some way.

[CaptainSalad2]

@simonmc is correct, any link you add anywhere yourself for SEO is against G TOS! Build a great site, great content, great user experience as if G wasn't invented and you will gain FREE "dofollow" links naturally from bloggers and other sites not scared to link to new sites!

[maha]

I'm building link for a customer.. so if I "have to" do it.. what anchor text(s) would you use?

[netmeg]

Nobody can tell you that, because there's no one safe rule. Too many variables. But of the choices you listed, I'd probably go with the full domain name.

[brotherhood of LAN]

If you use a backlink service on an older site, you'll see anchor rich text typically being in 20% or upwards of all links. I imagine for newer sites that number would be a lot lower... given the general consensus of how to promote in Google.

Generic domain_name, www.domain_name, click here etc would typically be a higher proportion nowadays but as already said, letting other people choose the anchor would be the "organic" way and less likely to fall foul of bias.

[maha]

Thanks Brotherhood.. I guess I'm asking how do I look "organic" to Google in link building? After all.. "other people" or "webmasters" are human too.. ;-)

[brotherhood of LAN]

Look at sites/pages that rank for terms you believe are targeted to your site, and check their backlinks to see what they're doing.

I don't think anyone will offer you hard %'s to work with.

[Robert Charlton]

I'm building link for a customer.. so if I "have to" do it.. what anchor text(s) would you use?

While the full domain name is the safest, if that were the only variant you used, that would certainly be unnatural as well. And there are many other ways beyond anchor text that Google can spot self-placed links.

How quickly you build the links, how much the linking sites are related, etc etc are all factors that Google analyzes statistically. Essentially, if it's easy for you to build the link, it's either going to be easy for Google to spot it, and/or the link isn't likely to be very helpful.

To repeat what simonmc said...

The only safe link is one that someone adds to you of their own accord and using the anchor text they choose.

All your link building is dangerous regardless of anchor text if you are building these links yourself in some way.

IMO, link begging is OK if the links are then freely given by sites that link because they like your site. As soon as money enters into it, other factors tend to get distorted too, and Google can usually spot those.

Link building on a "quota" also distorts the link building pattern in ways that Google can generally spot. That quota can either be one that's imposed by your client, or one that's self-imposed. Either way is likely to lead to problems.

[maha]

Robert, this is really good information. Thanks!