Published on June 05, 2012 Review your link anchor text for improved search engine rankings
As part of an ongoing process to change the way it values links, Google has made a series of changes to its search engine ranking algorithm over past months (which it had codenamed Panda), leading to the latest ranking formula update which it has called the Penguin update.
The update has a stated aim to improve the quality of search engine results by significantly reducing the value of links created from many of the common link strategies used by SEO companies, freelancers and businesses. The result has seen some businesses lose huge placings in the search engines – some of them up to 90% reductions in traffic.
Some of the main things they have punished is what Google considers “poor quality links” – from artificially created article directories, low quality foreign directories (that have no relevance in Australia) and excessive linking from sites using exactly the same phrase – which it considers as keyword spamming. What can you do about it? The first place you need to start is doing an analysis of the links you are getting, reviewing your anchor text, and changing your link profile – choosing better quality sources of links, updating some of the links you do have (if that’s feasible) and setting a strategic approach for getting new links. It’s not just more is best – the quality of the links matters just as much as the quantity of them that you have.
Where can you start?
Start by doing an analysis of your current link profile – using either one of the free backlink search tools available on the Internet or a paid service if you are using one (your SEO company will probably have a report they can send you if you are using one), and go through each of the links back to your site.
What should you be looking at? One of the main things you should look at is the text that is used on the link itself – this is called the anchor text.
If too many of the links back to your site have the same text, then you’re heading into the grey area, and if they are all the same (and you haven’t already lost your search engine rankings) then you’re skating on dangerous ice.
Experts seem to agree that an acceptable proportion is a maximum of 60% of your links from any one search phrase and lower proportions the better.
Varying the anchor text of links will actually help your business
Not every customer thinks the same way that you do, so the phrase that historically led you to the most traffic might not be the same phrase that will in the future – as new people start coming in to the market and have different ways of thinking about your products and services. By using a variety of link “anchors” back to your site, you have the opportunity to connect with more people – as speaking their language is part of the psychological process of building rapport.
Look for quality sources of links
The sites that have been punished the most are low quality article directories, dodgy blog networks and offshore directories. Ever seen an ad promising to list your business in thousands of search engines and directories? Signing up with those services is now a total waste of time, because only a small proportion of directories and these links will even be indexed now and real people don’t bother searching them.
You need to get yourself listed in real-life directories, human-edited directories, directories that have quality guidelines (i.e. they don’t just accept anyone without review), get customers to give you natural honest reviews and recommendations on their own social networking profiles, and provide quality content on your website that others will feel that they will want to link to as it will help their customers.
Quality sources of links in Australia continue to be the established brands and directories that actual people will search in. Examples include ShopSafe, Hotfrog, BusinessHunt and TrueLocal and there are a number of industry specific directories that are either human edited or reviewed to keep the quality of listings high.
Some criteria for reviewing a directory to list in include:
- Are they Australian?
- Do they have a category for your business or state in Australia?
- Do they have an entry criteria for their directory? If not and they just accept anyone without any quality standards then that’s an issue. Look at the terms and conditions of the directory to see if listings are human reviewed or approved, or whether they restrict listings to certain industries or countries. Listings that exclude non Australian businesses or ones that don’t sell to Australia are now more important. Ones that review your anchor text and don’t let every business use their “keywords” in their listing titles are also more valuable in this new search quality era.
- Does the site look professional? Does it look like real people would actually search in it or is it just an artificially created directory for search engine marketing purposes?
- Does the directory have content other than just listings? If so, that’s a help as the site owners are making a commitment to providing useful help to their visitors. Look at any extra content to see if it looks like it was written by “slave-writers” paid a pittance in a foreign country, or by someone who actually knows something about the topic they are writing about.
Many search engine marketing companies may ignore Google’s warnings and find new ways to influence their rankings via pushing wherever the new “grey area” is located. But a more fitting strategy and one that will last is to build quality links, using quality anchor texts that people actually search for and connecting to a variety of people will in the long run improve your rankings and insulate your business from future Google updates.
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