Exact Match Anchor Text - How Can These Guys Be Getting Away With It?
-
Hi.
I've noticed that some of my search competitors seem to be getting away with heavy use of exact match anchor text in their backlinks. In the UK, for the term [HR Software] the top 3 SERPs have on average:
- 63% of their backlinking domains using the exact match anchor text [HR Software]
- 50% of their backlinking pages use the exact match anchor text [HR Software]
I know there are hundreds of factors at play other than just the above but to me their anchor text profiles scream "LINK SPAM".
Is this normal? Have I missed something? or do I just bide my time and wait for them to be hit with a penalty?
Thanks
David
-
How are you checking their backlinks? Keep in mind that even the best link checkers can find only a fraction of the links pointing to a site. It could be that there are more links going to the site that you're not aware of, that Google knows about. Ahrefs has the largest index of links, in my experience.
It's also possible that the site has a lot of other positive signals going to the site. Generally, the more authoritative and trustworthy a site is in Google's eyes, the more it can get away with in terms of spammy tactics without getting penalized.
You also don't know which of those links are helping with the rankings, if any. It's entirely possible that the company has already disavowed most of those links in Webmaster tools, or Google is discounting them automatically. Or maybe they will end up getting penalized in the next Penguin update.
In short, don't rely too much on competitive backlink analysis. It can give you a few ideas of links to go after, but it doesn't always give you the full picture.
-
Sorry to sound negative but the only thing you have missed is believing that everything you read about Google works
I believe that all these PR releases is where Google wants to go in the future or how they wished things to happen, a white hat online marketing strategy best guide if you'd like. But as to what actually works you will be surprised to find out that a lot of black hat tactics not only work, but actually are good in keeping a site on page one for a long long time.
While this is a strategy that will innevitably lead you to the day you will log to your ranking tool and your whole web site will be gone, bear in mind that Google DID encourage heavy anchor text link building. Few months later they realise that people can abuse it as was greatly noted in this post here http://yoast.com/godaddy-link-building/ where GoDaddy managed to climb on page one overnight back in 2011, not that long ago but before the first Penguin release.
There are a lot of techniques that still work these days, techniques that have been reported black hat ages ago, and that google have made an example of. If they made an example why do they still work you may ask? I am in no position to answer, but they do work. Here is a sum up of 5 reasons you might be getting outranked by a competitor http://www.atladasmedia.co.uk/blog/5-seo-reasons-you-may-be-getting-beat-in-rankings-by-websites-that-are-no-better-than-yours/ one of which is:
- Anchor text link building. YES – Penguin is nasty and there are a lot of web sites that got penalised but anchor text link building does help if done properly. I did a quick search on terms such as the one mentioned above as well as local companies and the top pages have keywords in between six and 15 percent of their anchor texts. This is where a lot of companies that use keyword domain names as shown above, have an advantage, as their domain name can also serve as an anchor text if someone decides to link to them.
Hope this answers your question!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Can you duplicate on site Blog Posts to Google Plus
I have read from an authorative source that you can duplicate your blog posts on your google plus account without issues as google knows that this is your 'property'. is this correct and what would be the value in doing so? until we have need sign posting new blog posts with a link. Ash
Link Building | | AshShep10 -
Where can I get a list of broken links to my client's website?
I have a client who owns a website that attracted a large number of links to internal pages of their sites. Without realising the value of those links, they removed every page of their website other than the home pages that now reads, "new website coming soon". How can I get a list of every website still linking to the (now broken) internal pages of their site?
Link Building | | richdan0 -
Best Anchor Text Practices Post Penguin Panda
my question is what are the best practices Post Penguin and Panda for anchor texts? I have heard info about using brand names, and not having duplicate anchor texts. But i'm confused; if its best to have brand names then likely it will end up being duplicate. Also is having no anchor bad? I have also heard that it is best just to use the website URL. It would be great if someone could clear this up for me thanks.
Link Building | | ilyaelbert0 -
Websites where you can offer a service in exchange for a blogger reviewing it
Are there sites aside from blog link up where you can offer a free service to a blogger in exchange for a blog entry reviewing the service?
Link Building | | ilyaelbert0 -
Is bold text anchor link worth the higher price tag in directory listing?
Does it make a difference with Google if anchor link text is bold? The niche directory is offering regular lifetime listing for $199 (actual page pr 6) or bold for $349 (same page, same position). Also bold link has option of including email address. Does email address have any effect on SEO? Seems like a bad deal for bold, isn't it?
Link Building | | SirMax0 -
What is the general consensus on using Text Broker for content?
I have seen generally good reviews for http://www.textbroker.com. Does anyone here have personal experience with it? We are considering using it for content creation for guest blogging for clients. As far as we have found, this is all within Google's acceptable webmaster guidelines. In general, how much editing is required from an article provided by Text Broker? Thanks!
Link Building | | outofboundsdigital0 -
Can indirect linking be valuable?
I have a client who is using a SEO company (Hubshout, delete name if necessary) to boost traffic to their website. They are doing this by publishing articles and submitting them to article directories, then they use their own sites/blogs (which are valueless, PR and MozRank of zero) to point to these articles and they say that this helps boost there rankings. How? They are not linking to the clients websites, creating artificial links from their own websites to article directories instead of the clients website. Are they trying to boost the value of the article or trying to boost their own websites? How does this help out the client? It is similar to three way linking but is not.
Link Building | | Michael_Rock0 -
What can be blocking the link juice?
Hey all, I recently found an issue on the website of one of my clients, so I want to hear what could be the reason for it. We are working with that client since September last year and we had created around 300 links to it. However, I recently found out using Majestic SEO and Open Site Explorer that for every page there are like 3-4 links passing value... I checked the whole report immediately, but the thing is that all links are in place and they have relevant URLs and anchortext as wel. I am thinking about an onsite issue, which can be blocking the links (I checked the robots.txt and the http header to see if they return any errors, but no luck). Any suggestions.... Any help is greatly appreciated 🙂 Best Regards
Link Building | | GroupM0