"home page" anchor text and effect on rankings?

[omashow]

I am noticing that many websites that rank in top 3, in my niche, do not have an "home page" anchor text link. They replace home page with keywords.
Is that a good strategy everyone could use?

[keyplyr]

Hi omashow and welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]

I don't it matters much either way nowadays. Intetnal keyword text links no longer have much weight. However, naming it "home page" is non-productive. Why not use the name of your site?

[glakes]

I think most healthy sites don't do a lot of linking to their homepage outside of the main navigation. At least in my industry, the homepage provides an overview and links off to inner pages where the real information is at. In fact, I would think it to be odd to be linking back to the homepage within the context of a sentence and reminds me of seo practices of a decade ago.

[keyplyr]

, I would think it to be odd to be linking back to the homepage within the context of a sentence

That's not what the OP said. Yes that would be spammy.

Most use navigation to include a link to the index page. Many also link their logo to the index page.

However, as I mentioned above, naming the index page (in alt if using logo image) home page is non-productive and I personally think it sounds amateurish.

[30K_a_month]

"I don't it matters much either way nowadays. Intetnal keyword text links no longer have much weight. However, naming it "home page" is non-productive. Why not use the name of your site? "

Thats like saying external links dont work. That statement is absolute rubbish. If you have good PR/Juice into certain pages then link them back to another page with exact match keyword and you will see a change.

[keyplyr]

That's not what I was saying. I didn't comment on back links nor incoming link juice.

However, link juice has been significantly deprecated. If you believe they still have the power they once did, then that belief is mistaken.

[30K_a_month]

"That's not what I was saying. I didn't comment on back links nor incoming link juice"

Sorry buddy... you said "intetnal keyword text links no longer have much weight"

Thats not true. They are as strong as the links into the page. Not trying to argue just want things clear.

I will clear this up

OP

If you link your site internally with keywords it will increase the rank of those keywords as long as the internal page that you are referring from has some sort of link juice.

[keyplyr]

They are as strong as the links into the page

That "strength" has been greatly devalued. No longer is everything about link juice. It hasn't been for quite a while. That's old SEO thinking.

Chasing link juice in today's ranking schema is a futile effort. Time better spent building new traffic sources through social media & apps.

[glakes]

A linked logo to the homepage, with alt text of the business name, is just fine and does not need keyword rich internal links to rank. Sites that do a lot of linking to their homepage may appear shady and tend to be of the MFA type or single online tool type sites (IP lookup, domain whois, header checkers). If a site is so thin that effort needs to be placed into ranking the homepage, a better use of time would be to build depth within the site. All those added pages will include a link for the main navigation, including the homepage, and help those pages rank better.

[moxie]

Totally agree with keyplyr.. plus, I've always had my logo alt as the site name linking to the home page, and the link back to the home page in a menu as "Home", and never had a problem with ranking.