Avoid Patterns! Use Variety in Your Link Text!

Filed under: Internet Marketing, Keyword Research, Search Engines, Traffic by mike |

Using Variety in your Link Text Keywords is Beneficial!

SEO Search Engine Optimization Keyword Density Text Linking Tips that will get you more traffic and higher rankings!

OK, I just looked at one of the newest Article Announcement blogs and noticed a member had posted some announcements and when I inspected the links and his site closer I noticed a couple of things about the sites pages and their chosen link text.

Let me say this first - I’ll capitalize it and then later after you read the whole article this will hopefully make sense:

PATTERNS can kill you! PATTERNS are GENERALLY NOT NATURAL. PATTERNS cause red flags and alerts! AVOID PATTERNS!

OK, so what did I notice on the announcement blog that prompted me to discuss the importance of avoiding patterns?

Well… I spotted a member who was announcing in a manner that prompted me to take a closer look at their web site.

So what did they do?

They linked using the Keyword Phrase the article was OPTIMIZED for AND that phrase was the ONLY WORDS in his page title and as far as I can tell the only phrase used in their link text on and off their site.

In the real world when poeple link to your web pages - they rarely use LINK TEXT containing your keywords, much less ALWAYS use the SAME EXACT PHRASE! This is a PATTERN my friends.

TIP: if you use the SAME EXACT link text ALL THE TIME it is very likely it will trigger an alarm for a human visit, or get reduced relevance credit or in the worst case the search engines (smart ones) will ignore the LINK TEXT.

It’s easy for the smarter search engines like Google to see patterns like this. Think about it - it’s not natural in the real world for a web page to have a high amount of links pointing at it with the same exact link text.

So why not help yourself by varying the link text at least a little???

Here is an example using the optimized keyword phrase “Link Popularity”:

Web Page HTML Title: Link Popularity
Announcements Blog HTML Title: Link Popularity
Link Text on the Announcements Blog(s): Link Popularity
Link Text on their internal links: Link Popularity
Link Text on their other external links: Link Popularity

Do they have any links pointing at this page that have TEXT other than Link Popularity???

If ALL of the links pointing at your web pages - internal and external - have the SAME EXACT KEYWORD PHRASE in the LINK TEXT - you will have a harder time getting your page to rank for that term. It may also set off alarms and filters

Now, it is a secret weapon to match your TITLES and LINK TEXT - no doubt - that has a huge impact on ranking - but if you take this secret to the extreme you will HURT yourself instead of helping yourself.

Now, this will take a little extra effort and brain power but is worth the time expended.

SOLUTIONS and SUGGESTIONS:

1. Add WORDS other than the article keyword phrase to your titles. How about something like:

“Link Popularity Secrets Revealed”

That way - when machines link you on pages and they use your TITLES as the link page (Traffic Equalizer and other software site builders will do this) at least it will give you some links to your page with different link text.

Also, more “human” titles will get more people clicking on your listing when they are scanning the search engine results pages. So why not make your titles more appealing. It will help you with varying the LINK TEXT and will get your pages more visitors!

2. Vary your link text. Do not always use the same exact phrase. Add a word that also appears on your web page. Link a full sentence. Change the order of words. Find a longer tail phrase that includes your optimized phrase.

Me, I personally always create at least 3 variations for my LINK TEXT. In most cases I will use the TOP CHOICE 60% of the time and split the other words for the remaining percentage. There are no exact numbers here - just add some variety and you will be rewarded.

Have you used the AUKDAT tool yet???

http://www.articleunderground.com/webmaster/keyword-density-tool.html

AUKDAT to the rescue! Use the Article Underground Keyword Density Analyzer Tool (AUKDAT) to find OTHER great keywords on your pages to use for text links.

This tool will help you out BIG TIME!

Go to the above URL and type in the URL of one of you real content web pages. By real content I mean a page that has an article or other valuable words on the page.

AUKDAT will analyze your web page from top to bottom. Be patient - if your page is a big one it will take longer.

What you’ll find from AUKDAT is an extensive report that begins by analyzing your TITLE and meta tags and anchor text on the page as well as showing you ALL of the keyword PHRASES that appear on your web page. ONE word phrases…. TWO word phrases… EVEN THREE WORD PHRASES!!! That’s powerful info!

AUKDAT is a great tool to find out what keyword phrases you have on the page that would be good to use for text links. Because as I instruct Article Underground members, you can get a LOT of traffic from search engines to keyword phrases OTHER than just the KEYWORDS THE PAGE IS OPTIMIZED FOR! If you study your stats you’ll find people search for all kinds of strange combinations and phrases BUT keep in mind you’ll generally only get this BONUS TRAFFIC IF the words actually appear on your pages! You’ll get even more traffic if the KEYWORDS also appear in link text!

So - use some variety in your link text! Use the AUKDAT tool to find out what OTHER words are on your page and use them in your links and titles!

Ideally want your link text to have words that actually appear on your web pages! You can quickly find extra words to add to your link text with the AUKDAT tool! Give it a try! It’s one of the best free tools out there!

http://www.articleunderground.com/webmaster/keyword-density-tool.html

If you like the tool please consider linking to it!

OK, well that should help straighten out the theory behind LINK TEXT and TITLE TEXT and help you add some diversity to your linking campaigns. The general rule is do what the REAL WORLD DOES! Be natural whenever you can! And the real world RARELY has PATTERNS. It is generally AUTOMATION that reveals patterns and gets people busted! Avoid the red flags and fly under the radar by introducing variety and breaking patterns! It will pay off big time!

6 Comments »

Ahem;
Robots: Found no robots meta tag.
This tag is not really required but helps spiders to index the web page.

You want to explain exactly how this helps what is actually default behaviour?
——————————————————————————–

Author: Found no author meta tag.
This tag is not really required but helps for your (company) name recognizing.

Ahem again; you want to explain how having your comany name buried in the code helps to get it known?

Other than that the tool’s not too bad

BB

Comment by billkruse — April 19, 2007 @ 10:16 pm
Hi Mike,

As always your tips are very useful (and true!).
I myself thought about it lately on the subject. With your advice now I feel certain about how to process link texts

Thank you,
Sergio
http://www.learnspanishonlinelive.com

Comment by Sergio — April 19, 2007 @ 10:48 pm
Thanks for the comments!

Personally, I rarely do anything with meta tags. Their benefit is purely cosmetic as far as I can tell.

As for why they are mentioned in the report - some people would like to know this information. Use your own judgement as to whether meta tags are worth considering.

The AUKDAT tool analyzes your pages and gives you information. what you do with the information is up to you.

To me th emost important data it presents is the KEYWORD DENSITY. And hopefully that is worth the price of admission (FREE!)

Cheers!

Comment by mike — April 20, 2007 @ 3:15 pm
Hey Mike,
I have more than a year reading article underground and you always have the right words and of course the right articles. You are truly right, patterns can be discovered very easily, we are dealing with search engines, not humans.

Let’s remember the basic programming classes : IF-THEN-ELSE
IF (this anchor text is always the same) THEN (bad for you)
ELSE (good for you)
That’s the way it is. We CAN NOT fool the machines.

Mike, Thanks for all the good content!

Comment by marcelowaldo — April 22, 2007 @ 10:30 am
Good information. Spot on!

Thanks Mike. It is always good to know your doing something right for the search engines.

I still believe in the old fashioned metatags. I do not think it hurts to use them. Better the devil you know.

It makes sense to add varity to title links, as long as you stay focused on the web page keywords.

I love the keyword density tool.

I started using it way back. It really is good for keyword research and it does throw up some combinations you would never consider.

Keep the good stuff coming.

Sincerely.
John Adams
http://www.honest-homebusiness.com

Comment by youallnome — April 22, 2007 @ 1:25 pm
Hi,
Its a useful post.As iam new to this Search engine optimization field,really it is very much useful and helpful for me.Your tips and solutions are excellent.I know very well how keyword optimization is very important in the seo field.You had given great explanations here.Thanks for your valuable and precious information,tips,suggestions etc.

Comment by AeldietSabelina — October 19, 2007 @ 3:41 am