Weigh That Anchor:
The Importance of Anchor Text in Google Rankings

By Jake Lowrey

The importance of anchor text cannot be understated when it comes to placement in Google. Danny Sullivan has this to say about anchor text in the blog, Search Engine Land:

The anchor text used to link to your pages often is the most important reason you'll rank well for particular words.

People still continue to mistakenly think that doing well at Google is about getting as many links as you can. It's not. It's about getting quality links from important sites and ideally, very descriptive links -- links using the terms you want to rank for in the anchor text.

Did you catch Sullivan's phrase "terms you want to rank for?" Put another way, use your keywords.

Another writer, Ken McGaffin, has devoted an entire article to the importance of using keywords phrases in linking text. He wrote:

Keyword rich text is more attractive to humans. A casual reader may see "Latest article" and say so what? By using the title "Keyword phrases in linking text" I've told the visitor what the article is about and offered two hooks that they might be interested in - "keyword phrases" and "linking text." As a result the click through rate will be higher.

The text that links to a particular page gives Google and other search engines clues as to what the page is about. "Latest article" provides little information while the actual title of the newsletter contains at least two important keyword phrases.

Google also mentions the importance of anchor text in scoring a document in a recent patent application.

One of the things Google looks at is the changes in anchor text over time. These changes, the application says, may indicate not only an update in the document, but also "a change in focus."

To illustrate this, Google says if it notices a significant change of a document's content with the anchor text in the document's backlinks, they may infer that the domain expired and been purchased by someone else:

Because anchor text is often considered to be part of the document to which it's associated link points, the domain may show up in search results for queries that are no longer on topic. This is an undesirable result. [emphasis added]

So, if you are thinking about buying an expired domain in hopes of using its existing links, make sure you find a domain that is on topic with your existing keywords. Failure to do so could result in a loss of ranking not only for that domain, but also for any others to which is may link. Google will determine at what date the content or anchor text is altered significantly and "all links and/or anchor text prior to that date may then be ignored or discounted."

If that happens all your efforts will be for naught.

Jake Lowrey has communications experience as a news reporter, editor and public relations professional. Current assignments include writing for Team Link Network. He also blogs regularly at RavelBabel.com. You can reach him at jake@ravelbabel.com.