What is Anchor Text?

Anchor text is simply the word or words, preferably keywords, which are made clickable and hyperlinked to another page or website. When reading through a webpage you will often see a word, or a set of words that are written in a different color. In most cases these words are blue, but the color will depend on the webpage designer. When you place your mouse over these words you will see a website address or a preview of a different page. If you click on these words, aka anchor text, your browser will redirect you to another page with more relevant information. The page you’re redirected to may be within the website you are already viewing or a completely different website.

Anchor Text for SEO

Links are an important part of any SEO campaign. However, not all links are created equal. With anchor text being a major player in the ranking game, it would stand to reason that backlink anchor text from an authority site be such a highly sought after commodity in the SEO world of backlinks. After all, the most important links you can obtain are from other websites and highly ranked websites will provide the best backlinks. Provided the anchor text is a keyword and not something like “click here.”

Keep in mind that anchor text used in combination with keyword optimization will get you the best return on your anchor text efforts and definitely increase page rank. The reason for this is simple, Google and other search engines, as well as human readers, use anchor text as an indicator of what the linked page will be about. And we all expect that the page to where we’re being led be relevant to the anchor text that led us there.

When Should You Use Anchor Text and How Often?

Anytime you create web content you should include anchor text. Whether you are writing a blog, a post on your social site, an article, or a press release, keyword anchor text is beneficial. Even if the site you are posting on is not highly ranked by search engines you should still include anchors. After all, every site starts out on the low end of search engine results. Links that hold little value now may be very important later.

Cautionary advice, just as you don’t want to over stuff your content with keywords, you don’t want to spam your posts with anchor text. While there are no set rules on how many hyperlinks you should have in a post, if you’re publishing on your own website, you’re the boss so you get to decide. But use your common sense and provide additional relevant information through hyperlink anchor text only when and where it makes sense. If you find you have a ton of additional relevant information, write another article!

If you still have questions about anchor text, feel free to post your questions in the comment section below.

If you prefer to hire out your web management, High Profits Marketing would be honored to help.


Peace & Prosperity,

General Keywords

Broad or general keywords are rather generic and large in scope, covering a large base in topic.  While a broad keyword has more overall searches, going after the most searched keywords can prove to be more difficult to achieve a high ranking for because they also have more competition.  An example of a broad keyword would be “dog.”

Long Tail Keywords

Long tail keywords are named ‘long’ because they are made up of several words.  This helps them to be more focused and specific.  As fewer sites target and try to rank for longer keyword phrases, there is less competition and it can be easier to get good results in the search engines. An example of a long-tail keyword phrase is “best dog training guide.”

Choosing Between General Keywords and Long Tail Keywords

In order to optimize your results, it is best to use both types of keywords in your copywriting and content for your site.  However, there may be times where you are not able to use both at the same time and you’ll need to select one over the other.  More often, you will decide to use only one for a specific purpose.

A good example of what we are talking about is when you are ready to register a domain name or a web 2.0 property.  Just about all of the simple, general keywords are taken and it may not be possible to find a URL containing your first word choice.  In such cases, you will need to dig a little deeper and select a long tail keyword phrase that is appropriate.

Then there will be times when you’ll want to get to the top of the SERP rankings quickly and will therefore select long tail keyword phrases on purpose, regardless of whether it is for a web 2.0 property or for your own domain.  The reasoning behind this is as follows: even though long tail keyword phrases may get fewer searches individually, they are often the most searched keywords before a buying decision.  In other words, long tail keywords attract a targeted audience; people who know more specifically what they are looking for.  This can help you to dominate a niche where your competitors are only focused on the more general keywords.

Using our examples from before, someone who enters “dog” into the search engines is either just browsing for a variety of general information on dogs, or will eventually drill down and get more specific when they see the massive number of returned results.

In our other example, someone who types in “best dog training guide” is looking for specific information on training dogs.  To get even more specific, you might want to add a particular breed and/or a particular type of dog training.

Since it’s harder to get in the viewers mind when using broad or general keywords, it’s imperative that you spend time doing keyword research and use long tail keywords.

Peace & Prosperity,

P.S. Confused about keyword selection, let High Profits Marketing do the job for you. Whether you do it yourself or outsource it, make sure your using keywords in your SEO strategy!

photo credit: ajkohn2001

By spending time doing keyword research, you’ll discover the terms your prospective customers enter in the search engines to find what they are looking for or better yet, what you have to offer.  Once you have these golden nuggets of information, waste no time cashing in on them. Include the relevant keywords and phrases on your site, in your copy, and in your content.

Be forewarned, site owners at one time used to stuff their sites and content with keywords in an attempt to trick the search engines into giving them a higher ranking.  When the search engines realized they were being duped, they quickly changed the rules and let it be known that they were not going to put up with any unethical marketing.  So if you don’t want to take the risk of getting penalized by the search engines, I’d strongly advise you play by their rules.  Honesty is always the best policy and should be applied when trying to get ranked with the search engines as well.

So now that you have your keywords, how do you use them and where do you place them?  For awhile, everyone was saying to use them in the Meta tags in the HTML.  While you shouldn’t discount this tactic, it doesn’t seem to hold as much weight as it used to.

Keyword placement is not a constant and has a lot to do with the type of page you are building. For Web 2.0 properties such as Squidoo, Hub Pages or Google’s Knol, it is suggested that the keywords be in URL you pick, in the titles, subtitles, written content and in any tagging space that they allow you to fill in.

When creating a blog post for your blog, the keyword should be in the URL as well.  However, this will only work if your blog template is set up in such a way so that the permalink structure for individual blog posts can be changed.  Look in the settings to see if you can change the permalink for your particular blog post or not.

There are many blogs that will assign a blog post a number such as this: http://www.yourblogname.com/?p=123. In this case, you will need to select a custom structure and enter this code: /%postname%.html – this will make your blog post URL appear with the title of the post, where your keywords will be, like this: http://www.yourblogname.com/title-of-blog-post.

There are tremendous benefits to using keywords in all of your content.  Focus on using your keyword in the first paragraph and if possible, within the first sentence.  By doing this, Google will bold your keyword as an exact match if that keyword or phrase is being searched.

While there is some debate over the optimal percentage for keyword density, recommendations usually range between 2% and 10%. To keep it simple, write for both your human visitors and the search engine spiders; but make sure your content reads smoothly, makes sense, and still contains enough keywords to get the ranking you desire.

Peace & Prosperity,

P.S. Confused about keyword research, let High Profits Marketing do the job for you. Whether you do it yourself or outsource it, make sure your using keywords in your SEO strategy!

photo credit: parushing

Keyword Optimization: A Simple Explanation

Begin by selecting the keyword phrase that you want the page to rank well for in the search engines.  Most often, the keyword optimization is organized like this:  main page is optimized for the most general keyword or phrase, the categories are optimized for more specific keywords and the pages or posts are optimized for very specific keyword phrases.

Long Tail Keywords

The more specific a set of keywords tend to be, the longer the keyword phrase gets.  Phrases with 3 or more words are also known as Long Tail Keywords.  These are good to target because they return more specific, targeted traffic.  Another search engine optimization strategy to use with long tail keywords is to include shorter keyword phrases within your original long tail keyword phrase.  An example might be this phrase for a dog grooming site: ‘starting an organic dog grooming business.’‘ While the page is optimized for the entire phrase, you may want to also break out and use the phrase ‘dog grooming business’ within the content and rank well for the shorter phrase as well.

Keyword Optimization: Getting the Attention of the Search Engines

When using keyword optimization to get ranked and found by the search engines,  have the selected search engine keywords strategically placed on each and every individual page of the site.  The keyword phrase should be in the file name, the title tag, the text header, sub-headings, within the content, within the Meta description tag and in anchor text of incoming links.

To keep it simple, when you add your keyword phrase within the content of the page, you will want to include it in the first and last paragraphs and at least once in the middle.  This is all that is needed to have the keyword phrase properly placed within the page content.  Placement is important, but it’s not necessary to go overboard.  Make sure that the use of the keyword phrase sounds natural and flows with the rest of the information given.

As far as the title tag, and file name, you have to think about the trail from the search engines to your site.  When people see your link in the search engine results, what is the first thing they see?  They see your title tag and the URL.  Make sure that it is clear what they will be seeing when they click on either link by including the keyword phrase in those places.

This same concept applies to the use of the keyword phrase in the text header, Meta description and within the content.  Google either uses the supplied text or will pull its own text for use with the listing that best matches it.  A good title may inspire your target audience to click through, or it may be the description that prompts the call to action. Better safe than sorry, so make sure both are properly optimized.

In the end, the main thing to focus on with keyword optimization is to make sure that the content of your page properly matches the keyword phrase that is being targeted.  Let your target audience know exactly what to expect when they decide to click on any link to your site.  When they find what they have been looking for, they are more likely to come back, and you will have accomplished your goal of increasing traffic.

Peace & Prosperity,

P.S. Have Keyword Optimization questions? Feel free to post them in the comments section below.

A lot of site owners make one of two mistakes: they either think using keywords and keyword phrases is very complicated or they think that they already know what keywords and phrases their target audience is using.

Search Engine Keywords

Choosing search engine keywords does not have to be a long and complex undertaking.  What it will require is a good keyword suggestion tool and a little analysis of which keywords and phrases will work the best for you.  There are plenty of free and paid for keyword tools available.  You may want to start with a free tool to get a feel for how they work and then consider paying for one later on.

A good free keyword search tool to start with is the one offered by Wordtracker.  This tool is used by you typing in a broad term that your site is based upon.  As an example, if your site was about dog grooming, then that is what you would type in.  The keyword tool would then supply a listing of the top 100 keywords and phrases associated with ‘dog grooming’.  This list will also show the average number of daily searches for that specific keyword or phrase as well.  Some will have hundreds or thousands of daily searches, while others will only have tens of searches.  You will want to begin choosing keywords that make sense for your site and have a good number of daily search results.  It’s not necessary to always select the keywords and phrases with the highest searches as those also have the most competition.

For example, the phrase “dog grooming equipment,” at the time of this writing, is searched 75 times per day, but put that into perspective.  That means that the term is searched 2250 times per month or 27,000 times per year.  If you properly optimized a page on your site for the phrase “dog grooming equipment” you could easily rank well and reap the traffic rewards.

The second mistake that many site owners make is thinking that they already know what keywords and phrases their target audience are using.  Very often, they are wrong.  Knowing how to choose search engine keywords requires stepping into the audience’s shoes for a moment.  Too many site owners use industry jargon or set up their site from an insider perspective and then scratch their heads when the traffic is nonexistent.  The site’s copy needs to incorporate the same language the target audience is using, not what the site owner thinks they should use.

Don’t make the mistake of assuming that you already know what your audience is looking for.  In fact, choosing keywords and phrases after conducting some research can make conversions soar because you are meeting the people where they are.  Your target market will let you know precisely what they are looking for by typing keywords and phrases into the major search engines.  Collect this information by conducting your own research and choosing keywords that fit in with the purpose of your website.

Peace & Prosperity,

P.S. If you’re looking for help with keyword research feel free to ask your questions in the comment section below.

photo credit: iQoncept

After all, if you have a website online isn’t that your end goal, to get your website found by those interested in what you have to offer? By following these simple SEO tips you can improve search engine rank and get your website found within the top positions of Google.

Hyperlink with Anchor Text

Since search engines favor anchor text for all outgoing and inbound links, it would be to your advantage to use relevant keywords as anchor text instead of using a standard URL. Given that search engines use anchor text to determine what your site is about and what it should rank for, using core keywords will bring in the best results.

Properly Construct Tags

Properly constructed title and meta tags that include keywords may not be as influential as they were once thought to be, but they do still add a bit of a boost to your search rankings. Meta tags are useful for categorizing web pages and letting the search engines know what to expect from those pages.

Link Popularity

The number of quality links that point to a website or web page is often referred to as link popularity. The more inbound links you get to your site, the more popular the search engines consider your site and therefore deem your site a quality source in their ranking.

Improve Search Engine Rank With Variety

If the majority of links to your website are all coming from the same domain it definitely has less of an impact on your ranking. Inbound links coming from a variety of websites is often associated with quality content and popularity, which we all know the search engines like.

My last little SEO tip to improve search engine rank is to include keywords in your root domain whenever possible.

While all of these factors play an important part in search engine ranking, not one will the job of all. If you want to improve search engine rank for a particular keyword and/or keyphrase, don’t pick and choose one or two of these simple SEO tips, instead implement them all and watch your search engine ranking rise.

Peace & Prosperity,

But if you’re going to play in Google’s backyard, you best play by their rules.

Google is no stranger to webmasters and online marketers, trying to beat their system in order to get ranked faster.  In an effort to remain in control and keep it a fair game for all involved, those who try to cheat the system and refuse to play by the rules will find themselves slapped with penalties.

And it appears from what others are experiencing . . . Google doesn’t believe in “innocent until proven guilty.”

Read the full article, “What Is Spamming In Google Local” to learn from the innocent mistakes of others and how to avoid being penalized.




Peace & Prosperity,
Andrea Chin

photo credit: Tim PopUp

If you’re not marketing your small business (or any business) online, you really need to think about what Albert Einstein had to say and consider a marketing makeover. I’m not insinuating you’re insane, but you can’t be marketing the way you did 10, 5 or even 3 years ago and expect the same results. Technology continues to make advances, the economy has changed and different avenues of marketing have emerged.

The way in which your customers and prospective customers search for information has followed the ways technology. Gone are the days when people look to the yellow pages, phone directories or other such similar means. Think about it, when was the last time you searched through the yellow pages or phone book looking for a business?

With the growth of the internet and its many uses, a good majority of consumers search online to find a business, do research on a business and compare prices.

If you’re business isn’t online it can’t be found!

And you’re leaving money on the table. Assuming that the marketing methods that worked for you in the past will continue to work for you this year or next can cost you potential customers. Successful marketing requires the openness to change with the times and try new marketing strategies best suited for today’s consumers. Consider a marketing makeover to boost your business and pull in more profits.

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If you’d like start immediately with marketing your business online, send me an email.