On site optimization - anchor text in body text
-
Hi
I am learning SEO from scratch and am only a couple of weeks in. My wife has just started a website selling children clothes. In the left bar there are links to the different producers. Clicking it takes you to the products from that producer. In the body text om the main page ( epleskrinet.no) the same producers are mentioned. By time i need to opitmize for all of these. Is there any point in making them anchor text - taking them to the same URL as is given in the side bar ? Or will it get discounted ?
Dan Laerum
-
Hi Dan,
I would definitely recommend doing this. Forget SEO for second, it is great for users! If you are talking about a certain producer on the homepage and you have a full page deeper in your site about that producer then providing your users with a direct link to that makes perfect sense.
For sure, you should listen to some of the advise given above. Vary up your anchor text when linking to that page from different pages or sections of the site, but most importantly keep it natural and provide your users with the best experience possible.
I believe you can find a number of articles here on SEOmoz explaining tests run on how Google only counts the first anchor text it crawls to each specific URL. So if you homepage navigation is crawled first and features anchor text A, then the anchor you use further down you page does not really matter. Make it good for users. Here is an article by Rand from 2008 although I am sure there are newer ones: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/results-of-google-experimentation-only-the-first-anchor-text-counts
-
Hi Dan
I do not believe you will be penalised for using the same anchor text and linking to the page twice from the home page. I would suggest you use a slightly different anchor text (still with your primary keyword (the brand), but using different adjectives around that word) to increase the relevance, of the brand page you are linking too, for a combination of searches for that brand.
-
Hi Dan,
it's generally a good idea if you identify a (unique) primary keyword for each of your pages. Am I understanding you right, that you have a bunch of producer pages, which you want to have ranking for the name of the producer?
Then I'd say the primary keyword is the name of the producer and I would try to link to those pages with the primary keyword. This helps Google in understanding what the page is about. Slight variations of the keyword are appreciated. Also you could have some "click here" anchor texts (which is totally natural in your anchor text distribution).
Just avoid the following thing: assume you'd be selling cars and you link to /Porsche sometimes with the anchor "Porsche", but other times with "Ferrari". This throws Google overboard and it can't tell if it should rank this page for Porsche or Ferrari. If you'd link with "see more cars" Google will figure this is off-topic.
HTH,
schuon
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
-
Optimizing a URL/menu structure
Hi Mozzers, I'm working on Content Strategy at my job, and I'm close to making some recommendations on short/long-term direction. While I'm there, I want to tackle the URL/menu structure (correct term?), which is a bit of a mess as pages have been created without any consideration for it over time. For ease, let's just say we have 3 main subdirectories of the site (Section A-C), and let's also say that section A also has 3 important subdirectories. From a UX perspective at least, we want a page to look like: example.com/sectionA/subsectionAA/page1 but currently it's example.com/page1 We have dozens and dozens of these examples. To complicate matters a little further, Sections B and C have been earmarked to be consolidated into a new section (D), as they're currently confusing and overlapping, and create roadblocks in user journeys. So a page that is, say: example.com/sectionB/page2 may well want to be: example.com/sectionD/subsectionDA/page2 I'm comfortable enough with technically doing this, as I'm experienced enough in Drupal and have an agency on hand too, BUT - I don't know if there are any SEO pitfalls I need to be wary of when I'm doing this, beyond resubmitting sitemaps, and the trickle-down effects of redirects. Any advice, wise forum? thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | joberts0 -
Site folder hierarchy 2016 ?
Hi, Would you say that based only on the "folder structure" that "somedomain.com/focus-keyword" has better conditions to rank well than "otherdomain.com/general-keyword/focus-keyword" ? Using Yoast SEO for WordPress when creating automatic XML sitemaps, URLS with subfolders seems to be getting lower priority. Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | Agguk0 -
Site not showing up in Google search since move
Hi, hoping someone might help me with some answer(s) as to why our site no longer shows up in Google search results. Even when we type the full name and city into Google, the site is absent. Our Facebook page, LinkedIn and some backlinks show, but our site is missing. I can no longer find it in Google places. I'm sure I've done something wrong since moving from a static (flash-based) site to Wordpress. But the robots.txt file looks okay to me and the sitemap.xml file is present. Anyway, this is what happens when you ask a network technician handle website design... We know just enough to be dangerous! Here is the site in question: www.newfrontiertechnologies.com located in Shoreline WA. Any advice is much appreciated.
On-Page Optimization | | NFTECH0 -
Why Does This Site Rank Well?
I noticed recently that the website of a local church (http://www.lifepointfc.com/) has climbed toward the top of the SERPS, and I cannot figure out why. The on-site SEO seems mediocre, at best, and their domain authority is 15 while their homepage authority is just 19. Does anyone see how they are working their SEO magic?
On-Page Optimization | | cbizzle0 -
How to Optimize Multiple Listing Pages
Hello Webmasters, How can I optimize a site having a listings which creates various multiple pages? e.g: Pages like below: http://moz.com/blog?page=2 http://moz.com/blog?page=3 etc I want to optimize meta tags of these pages. If i put common title and description. My moz analysis showing duplicate meta tags and duplicate description issues. Please guide me to optimize these type of pages.
On-Page Optimization | | wmsindia0 -
Alt Text On Buy Buttons
Hello, On a E-commerce site with multiple buy buttons on the page (11 by Default). Should I be blocking the alt. img on these? when I use the seomoz toolbar and view my page I see this Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • Buy Now • along with other alt imges on page, Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | TP_Marketing0 -
How quickly should I change/edit sites to avoid potential over optimization penalty?
Regard today's White Board, I'm wondering how quickly one should start changing title tags, page content, footer links, etc. on sites? I operate a few different sites and some of them definitely have things that need to be changed. Would it be weird or trigger something in Google if all the sites were changed in 24 - 48 hours? Thanks for your help!
On-Page Optimization | | jdrrocks0 -
Should I use bold for the first few sentences of a text?
I would like to know if anyone knew if the relevance of a page changes if I bold the first few sentences. Our journalist wants to bold the first few sentences in every article to make it easier to read, how does that affect SEO?
On-Page Optimization | | mtueckcr0