3) Anchor Text Optimization
Why it Killed Yesterday
Almost since links became part of search engine algorithms, anchor text has been used as a signal of the relevance of the page being linked to. If you are pointing someone to content about car batteries, it makes perfect sense to include the words ?car batteries? in the link text. We do this all the time with navigation because, well, at the risk of repeating myself, it makes perfect sense. You don?t have a navigation link that reads ?batteries? that goes to light bulbs!
In fact, search engines will use anchor text in a link to get an initial idea as to what a page is about without ever having to visit that page. That link text can be the very first signal the search engines get about a page. It?s no surprise then that SEOs optimize link text with keywords to promote the relevance of pages to the search engines.
Why it Will Get You Killed Today
As part of that ?optimization,? SEOs would often go out and secure large numbers of links for the target keyword, all pointing to the same page. The results would be a pretty abnormal link signature. After all, how many people are likely to link to the exact same page of a site using the exact same anchor text?
Maybe a few, but a few algorithm tweaks allowed search engines to sniff out manipulation. Whether you?re paying for links or getting them for free, having your site get hundreds of similar links just raises too many red flags, even if you do spread them out over time.
How to Kill it for Tomorrow and Forever
Does that mean you should never use keywords in anchor text? Not at all. It?s still a signal. Search engines are just looking for excessive manipulation of link anchor text. One way to avoid setting off the penalty alarms is to not get a surge of new links without new content to back it up. If you just produced a new piece of content that gets shared over social media, search engines can see that those links were likely earned. However, one hundred new links to a page that?s been around forever will likely look suspicious.
Another way is to make sure any new links you secure do not use the exact same anchor text. As much as you may have control over this, have your link text incorporate more of the sentence around your keywords than just the keywords themselves.
On your own site, continue to use your keywords within navigation and breadcrumbs. This will always make sense. In your body content, if you see an opportunity to link to another page, take it. Feel free to include the keyword within the linked portion of the text, but follow the same guidelines as in the paragraph above.