8 replies to this topic

[jklein]

I have been wondering about something for a while and have not been able to find any information about it. Hopefully this community can offer their thoughts and experiences.

I am an experienced search engine marketer and understand the value and importance of link popularity. My question has to do with the link text that appears on other sites.

We have all seen link pages where the link text for a site is a list of keywords several lines long rather than simply the name of the site or a single key phrase.

Do search engines consider the keyword weight of an incoming link? For example, for a site about web design schools is it better to have incoming link text of:
web design schools
or
web design schools, colleges, and training

The second option is broader and would presumably provide value/weight to multiple search terms but the keyword weight is higher in the first option.

Any thoughts?

[Farhan]

Well I think search engines do consider the weight of keywords in the incoming links. "Web design school" is a better incoming link than "web design schools, colleges" etc.

[fred]

Hi

I agree with Farhan

It's so simple for the SE to apply the algorithm as such.

If they do it for internal links why wouldn't they do it for external links ?

[jklein]

OK. What you are saying makes sense and I would agree.

As a result, let me ask this question, when you are asking for links from other sites, do you vary the link text in your code? For example
for the first 50 links, I might use "web design schools" as the link text
for the next 50 links, I might use "web design colleges" as the link text
etc.

That way I would receive link popularity for a number of different key phrases.

Is this the best way build link popularity across multiple terms?

Thanks for your help.

[qwerty]

If other sites are linking to pages other than just your home page, I'd say the trick is to try and get them to use link text that matches the keyword phrase for which you've optimized the target page.

[BrianR]

Agreed, Bob - but...

If you split the inbound links between two keyphrases, don't you weaken your overall link popularity for the site?

Wouldn't it be better to make the link text for all 100 links the same as the stronger of the two keyphrases?

By 'stronger', I mean this: If your site stats show that say 80% of searches come from the keyphrase 'web design colleges' and only 20% come from 'web design schools', then 'web design colleges' is the stronger of the two.

Of course, this assumes that 'web design colleges' doesn't have 1000 times more competitors than 'web design schools'!

But you get my drift - all things being equal, I'd make all my text links read 'web design colleges' in the example above - yes??

BrianR

[qwerty]

Agreed, Brian, but only if all the links are pointing to the same page (as most will). It's a lot harder to get links to interior pages, but if you manage to do it, my point was that the anchor text of those links should be the kw phrase of that page.

And I suppose in a very extreme example, if you've got thousands of links pointing to your home page for one kw phrase, and you're number one on that phrase, it couldn't hurt to start building some link rep for whatever other phrase that page is optimized for.

<added> I just took another look at what you wrote, Brian, and I think I have to add something to what I've said... If 80% of your traffic is coming from one kw phrase, but you're optimizing for two, I think it kind of indicates you've got some work to do on your #2 phrase.

[awall19]

it is not hard to extend your web reach though if your search terms overlap. one person I know lists very well for a 3 word phrase even though only two of their keywords are in most of their inbound links.

after you have good placement for one of your keyword phrases there is absolutely no reason not to go after the other (especially if a few of the keywords overlap)

[BrianR]

If 80% of your traffic is coming from one kw phrase, but you're optimizing for two, I think it kind of indicates you've got some work to do on your #2 phrase.

Bob, what I meant by this was that if keyphrase #1 was naturally the more popular keyphrase (a la Wordtracker) and hence generated 80% of your traffic.

I guess if you optimised heavily for keyphrase #2, you might shift the balance in its favour somewhat, but, in terms of traffic, you'd find it difficult to overhaul the more popular keyphrase #1.

BrianR