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ebg
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Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2004 10:14 pm
Post subject: Anchored Links Question
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My understanding is that links to my site that use anchored text are highly effective for page rank and Search engine positioning.
Can anyone tell me if the links from my site to my affiliate partners should use anchored text or does anchored text only help with incoming links?
Thanks,
ebg |
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AllanGardyne
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Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 2:50 am
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As I understand it, it's a good idea to use keywords in any links.
They're all part of the text which the search engines analyse and part of the on-page ranking factors.
It's probably not a good idea to overdo it.
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dcristo
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Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 2:59 am
Post subject: Re: Anchored Links Question
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| ebg wrote: | | My understanding is that links to my site that use anchored text are highly effective for page rank and Search engine positioning. |
Anchored link text plays no bearing on PR transfer - a link with just the URL in it as opposed to some anchor text will pass the same PR. Your right about the second point though, anchor text is an important factor in ranking well. |
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Vancouver
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Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 6:05 am
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Short Answer:
If your affiliate partners use CJ, etc., it doesn't matter (assuming your site is not about "affiliate programs" or related keywords). Otherwise, better IMO to use non-KW anchor links to avoid passing on link "reputation" which you'll need to compete against.
Long Answer:
The anchor text will go to establishing your page's "reputation" (i.e. what your page's topic is) whereas the PR that's passed from an incoming link goes to establishing your page's "popularity" (how popular your page is based on who links to you). Both factors play a role in your page's ranking in the SERPs (the exact weight being a secret known definitively only by the search engines).
PR is kind of like making friends in high school--if you hang out with popular kids (or pages), you will (or your pages will), by association, be popular (as measured by the PR that's passed). The converse is also true.
On the other hand, link reputation goes to what your site is all about. If everyone links to your page using the anchor text, say, "dog training" then the search engines will assume your page is about "dog training" (oversimplified example). The more "dog training" incoming anchor text links you have, the greater your page's "dog training" reputation is. Then, if someone searches for the keyword phrase "dog training", you will be ranked against all the pages in the SE's database to see who has the most "dog training" incoming links. If everything else is equal and you have the most "dog training" links, you win the top spot (again, oversimplified). The obvious tiebreaker is PR (for Google).
Given all of the above, I'm of the opinion that you should not link to your affiliate partners using KW phrases because you'll pass on link "reputation" to their pages for the same KW phrases you are trying to optimize for. Assuming you are in the same industry, they are also your competitors (from a SERPs point of view). Thus, better to link to your affiliate partners using an anchor text like "click here". [N.B. Your few affiliate links probably won't make a diff either way but if every affiliate used KW anchor texts, then guess who's going to be no. 1.]
However, if your affiliate partners use CJ, etc., don't worry about it and use the keyword phrases because your links are actually to CJ, etc. This is assuming your site is not about "affiliate programs" in which case the former advice applies (since CJ is in the "affiliate programs" biz). Sorry for the long-winded response. 
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Last edited by Vancouver on Sat Jan 01, 2005 6:58 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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ebg
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Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2004 12:03 am
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thanks everyone, I have learned alot. I really apprecaite the detailed response. I agree I should not help out my competition with anchored outgoing links. I Never thought of it this way.
Thanks again,
ebg |
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