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A Couple Of Questions About Anchor Text & SEO

by npakergy16
8 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hey guys, I have a couple of questions that I need to be addressed regarding anchor text and search engine rankings.

I've been guest posting for various sites now for the past couple of weeks and I have been specifically targeting in each one of my articles the keywords "gain muscle fast" and "lose weight fast", hyperlinking those keywords in each one of my articles back to my fitness site.

The questions are:

1.) Will doing this hurt or help my search engine rankings? I've heard some say that it can be a very powerful tool for quickly increasing your search engine rankings but have heard others say the opposite, stating that Google will think of doing this as unnatural link building and penalize my site.

2.) If it could possibly hurt my search engine rankings, do you think Google will honestly catch on to this? Maybe I should vary the keywords that I'm hyperlinking in each article? Keep in mind that these aren't the only keywords that I'm hyperlinking, but I am hyperlinking these keywords in each one of my articles.

Any feedback is appreciated!
#anchor #couple #questions #seo #text
  • Profile picture of the author npakergy16
    Bump. Anybody?
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  • Profile picture of the author npakergy16
    Somebody please answer
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  • Profile picture of the author LloydMS
    It all depends. If you're writing a few guests posts and linking back to your site with a keyword, you shouldn't have any issues. If you're creating lots of guest posts and using just your actual keywords then it might be harmful. Are you doing it manually? Or using some type of submitter? Google cares about backlinks looking natural. And guest posts are perfectly acceptable as long as you don't overdo it.
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    • Profile picture of the author npakergy16
      Originally Posted by LloydMS View Post

      It all depends. If you're writing a few guests posts and linking back to your site with a keyword, you shouldn't have any issues. If you're creating lots of guest posts and using just your actual keywords then it might be harmful. Are you doing it manually? Or using some type of submitter? Google cares about backlinks looking natural. And guest posts are perfectly acceptable as long as you don't overdo it.
      Thanks for the response. What do you mean by manual? All of my articles that I write are definitely unique, if that's what you mean. I'm not using any type of submitter at all.
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      • Profile picture of the author jordanwarrior
        Linking back with anchor text is ok IF you have about 10% keyword density spread out across all your back-links. You'll mostly be wanting to stick with your website name, your own name (or online persona), and generic linking keywords such as "this article on www.yoursite.com." Basically, it has to look natural and exactly the way the average internet user would have linked. This means you'll be using very few of the actual keywords that you want to rank for.

        So...I would recommend you do not link back to your site with your keywords. Include the keyword in the article title, in a way that legitimately helps explain what the piece is about, and write using market vocabulary. That is, there is a certain set of words related to each topic on the internet, and Google knows what they ALL are. Your article needs to include the market vocabulary to demonstrate in-depth knowledge of that niche. Basically, I'm saying that a well written article by an expert on the topic, with a back link in the form of yoursite.com, or "check this site for more information" will have the most positive impact.

        Also, I don't know if you noticed, but these days it's all about branding. Online marketing is pretty much the same kettle of fish as offline marketing. If you don't build a brand, rabid following, email lists, or have the long term staying power to do this, there is really no point in getting into online marketing. Of course there's always paid traffic, but even that needs a lot of time, effort, and money to get right.

        Some of this wandered off topic, but I hope it helps.
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  • Profile picture of the author Slin
    Exactly what JordanWarrior said.

    Except that in my testing 30% of your links can use the exact anchor text, and you'll be fine.

    But yeah, you need to diversify your anchor text, actually to be honest I think this has been the biggest game changer that's come from google. It used to be possible to just blast your site up for one keyword, with exact anchor text. Not anymore!
    Signature
    search engine cloaking
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  • Profile picture of the author online only
    Anchor text variation is just myth...
    Anyhow, if you are scared of the allmighty "Google", then do the following
    1) http:// yoursite.com
    2) your keyword
    3) randomness...
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    • Profile picture of the author jordanwarrior
      Originally Posted by online only View Post

      Anchor text variation is just myth...
      Anyhow, if you are scared of the allmighty "Google", then do the following
      1) http:// yoursite.com
      2) your keyword
      3) randomness...
      Fact of the matter is that FOOGLE's algo knows exactly what to look for, and the average internet user does not link with anchor text. As such, linking with anchor text isn't as important as you think.
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