Anchor Text and Search Engine Optimization
Anchor text is important for both internal web site structure and external
linking.
It's good to use anchor text when you link between pages in your own web site. You should have link buttons or a navigational bar, as well as text links at the top, bottom, or side of the page using your keyword text.
Here's an example of an anchor text hyperlink. Let's say you want to link to your page about bikinis:
<a href="http://www.yoururl.com/bikini.html">Your anchor text (probably the word "bikini")</a>
When you discuss a topic in your web page and mention a keyword that's covered on its own page, you should use an anchor text hyperlink to that page when you mention the word. Anchor text is a factor that can increase your Search Engine Ranking for keywords and is thought to be part of Google’s algorithm for determinining search engine placement results.
Don't overdo it, though! Having the word "bikini" on the front page of your site a hundred times with a link to your bikini page at each word is considered spam, and could get you banned from search engines.
A prime place to have anchor text is in the footer section of your web site--where your copyright information is placed.
For example :
Copyright 2005. All rights reserved. “Keyword” www.yoursitename.com
(Hyperlinking the keyword to the url for the page where
the keyword is prominent)
You should also use anchor text when you link to an external web site.
<a href="http://www.yoururl.com">Your anchor text</a>
Articles, blog posts, forum signatures, reciprocal links or links anywhere else should include your major keyword as a descriptive anchor text hyperlink.
It's smart to use several different anchor text hyperlinks for backlinks. Make a list of all your major keyword phrases and create your link code. Each time you link to a site, try to put a different anchor text link on each site. If you have five major keyword phrases, you should have at least as many pages in your site you can link to for each anchor link, using each of your keywords.
Watch your search engine results and traffic increase when you utilize the
power of anchor text hyperlinking!