Anchor text, forums and other ramblings
Anchor text used properly can help your ranking in the search engines. Linking to your post with the appropriate text makes a difference but somehow people tend to ignore that in forums.
Now a good friend of mine runs a forum and it has a section for New blog ramblings. I have purposely not linked to it because the section is for active members and I don’t want to see a bunch of people go spam it.
The thing is that this a perfect place to highlight your quality content posts, expose them to people that may not find your blog normally and send them to some of your good quality posts. You also create a back link from a very active forum that has some decent PR.
Really an ideal thing and something a lot of the forum member’s miss out on. The key is to not add all your posts but do add the posts that have good content. In this Web 2.0 world giving first and with quality content is important.
Here is the problem I am seeing though. More people are starting to use this and that is great but they are missing the opportunity the forum gives them to create the ideal anchor text for their content.
They either come in and put up a blurb and the direct link to their blog’s home page or the just post the permalink to their blog post. the latter is better because you will be getting internal links and not just a link to your home page but not as powerful as having a link with your keyword phrase as the anchor text.
Most forum use bb code so it would be very easy to use it and make a clickable link (anchor text) with their keyword for the post.
For those not familiar with bb code this is easily done by using the following
[url=http://yourblogpostfullurl]Anchor text[/url]
By doing that and adding the keyword they most want to rank for they are telling the serps exactly what the post is about and the little spiders that go through there will report back and hopefully you will rank better for that specific term.
Yes using forums will deliver direct traffic done the other way but taking a few more moments and alerting the serps to what your post is about is even more powerful.
Take advantage of these opportunities not just in forums but anywhere that you can promote your post and use good anchor text.
As always your questions and comments are welcomed.
Mike Paetzold
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8 comments
Fred Lotgering on March 21, 2009 at 10:56 am
Great post Mike,
Anchor text is a powerful toll, I use it most if the time but should be doing it even more.
You list all the reasons for it.
Fred
Fred Lotgering´s last blog post..Web Traffic Galore GiveAway Event
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Andre Arnett on March 21, 2009 at 11:15 am
I think I use it most of the time. Will have to pay more attention and make sure. It does make sense to make sure we are doing it right. Thanks.
Andre Arnett´s last blog post..More Traffic To Promote Your Online Business
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Captain Affiliate
Twitter: Mentoring4U
on March 21, 2009 at 11:33 am
Couldn’t have said it better, Mike! Anchor text is one of the most important parts of your SEO duties, both on links back to your blog and on every link you place online.
Like you, I’ve noticed people most often forget in two places – the forums that you mentioned and in the Author’s Resource Box on articles they’ve submitted to the directories.
Never miss the opportunity for a PR boost by using relevant, keyword-laden anchor text – While no one article or post might boost our rankings of and by itself, you never know when just one more link MIGHT be the one to move your page rank up a notch.
Captain Affiliate´s last blog post..36 Hours Left To Download New Coaching PLR Package
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Earl Netwal
Twitter: EarlNetwal
on March 21, 2009 at 1:01 pm
Well guilty as charged. But improving. Not sure I understand bb code and when it applies.
Earl Netwal´s last blog post..A short introduction to me and why Market Maker
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Joel Osborne
Twitter: JoelOsborne
on March 21, 2009 at 3:07 pm
Very important information for good SEO!
Before using anchor text, make sure that you know what keyword(s) you want to use, because those links could be active for years to come.
Joel Osborne´s last blog post..Make More Affiliate Commissions! – Affiliate Theme
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Ric Raftis on March 21, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Very worthwhile mentioning Mike. Anchor text is something often ignored by many people. It’s a funny thing, but the anchor text “Click Here” has millions of listings on Google and the number one ranked site for this term is Adobe Acrobat.. LOL.
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Stephen C on March 27, 2009 at 11:16 am
Never thought much about anchor text. Thanks for the tips!
Stephen C´s last blog post..Standardized Tests!
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leon lewis on May 14, 2010 at 10:12 am
Man anchor text is everything to me, this is what the big G works with LOL.
LL
computer repair online
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