Soci@lite Miniclass: Reciprocal Links & Anchor Text

Anchor Text and Reciprocal Links work together to provide invaluable link value to your website and have the potential to significantly increase your website ranking.

Anchor Text is the hyperlink or clickable text found on a webpage. Using accurate Anchor Text is essential for good Search Engine Optimisation and when used appropriately it can drastically boost your rankings in the search engines. The Anchor Text provides descriptive and useful information for the page that it links with.

Anchor Text also enables websites to use cleaner looking text rather a distracting hyperlink, e.g. <a href=http://www.social-ite.info>Soci@lite</a> would appear as Soci@lite on the page.

A common mistake is “Click Here” Anchor Text, which apart from neglecting to describe your  content to page visitors and search engine crawl bots, means you will not benefit from SEO ranking. At one time, Google Bombing used large amounts of Anchor Text to influence the rank of a link that directed visitors to unrelated content. However in January, 2007, Google created a new algorithm which reduced the impact of Google bombs.

Where to use Anchor Text:

1. External links (links from other sites)
2. Internal links (links on your pages)
3. Links on your main page
4. Navigation maps

Top Tips for Appropriate Anchor Text: 

• Branding: include the company or product name, e.g. Soci@lite Social Media Training & Consultancy
• Context: provide a relevant description, such as Social Media Blog rather than just Blog
• Keywords: include your targeted keywords to increase SEO benefits
• Readable: it is crucial that your Anchor Text makes sense to human page visitors, not just search engines
  Succinct: try to keep your Anchor Text under 60 characters
• Unique: each web page should have a unique Anchor Text to describe it – use variations and secondary keywords

Reciprocal Links are created when two websites agree to exchange links with each other. Anchor Text is crucial to this because you want your link partner to accurately describe your site and your site to also rank for the keywords that you are targeting. It is always good practice to use Anchor Text which is going to influence your SEO goals and positively portray your website. Search engines look at both the quantity and quality of sites that link to your site. A Reciprocal Link can bring more traffic and boost your website’s SEO ranking.

Ten Top Tips for obtaining Reciprocal Links:

1. Find high-quality complementary sites not competitors, unless the advantages outweigh the disadvantages
2. Initiate a link exchange by placing a link to a site on a relevant page of your own site
3. Contact the site owner
4. Inform the site owner of who you are, what your website is, why you’re interested in linking to their website, and how you both can benefit from the exchange
5. Inform the site owner that you have already linked to their website and if they agree to exchange links you are happy to modify the Anchor Text to something of their choosing
6. Provide them with the URL of the page where you’ve placed their link
7. Request that they link back your site and suggest a page where the link may be appropriate
8. Provide the HTML code that includes the hyperlink and the keyword Anchor Text so they use the correct Anchor Text for your link
9. If you have not heard back within a couple of weeks then send a brief, polite reminder, but don’t push it as they may reconsider in the future
10. Keep a detailed and organised list of sites that you have propositioned a link exchange with so you know who has provided you with a link and who you still need to contact

Although search engines such as Google assign more value to websites with the most relevant and superior links, it is of equal importance that the right Anchor Text is used in order for your keywords to be ranked and your traffic targeted. Try to diversify your link exchanges by not focusing on only high-value sites.

Finding high-quality link partners can be a difficult and time-consuming task however the eventual payoff is fantastic – good luck!

Related articles 

• 10 Myths That Scare SEOs But Shouldn’t – Whiteboard Friday (seomoz.org)
• How Link Building Has Changed And Why You Have To Change Too (koozai.com)
• Is Co-Citation the Future? (techattitude.com)
• 8 SEO Tips That Take 15 Minutes or Less – Search Engine Watch #SEW (teachercloud.wordpress.com)
• Prediction: Anchor Text is Dying…And Will Be Replaced by Co-Citation – Whiteboard Friday (seomoz.org)