If you want to see a steady improvement in web site rankings, you need to increase your link popularity. This refers to the number and quality of links pointing to your site. Using anchor text in your linking structure carries more weight than a standard link however you need to vary it to maximize its effectiveness.

What types of links do you need?

How often should you vary the anchor text?

Where should you get links from?

What types of links do you need?

Internal links

Make sure all the pages within your web site link to each other. Create a site map that lists all the web pages. Use anchor text in the description of your link. When Google visits your site it can easily spider your whole site using the site map.

It's difficult to get good rankings from blog posts because they typically don't contain backlinks. You can remedy this by linking the keywords (anchor text) in related posts to the page you want to get good rankings for.

Example

If you have a page about "red shoes" include "red shoes" in the anchor text of related pages. This will boost the ranking of the red shoes page.

External links

Anchor text from external sites boosts rankings. When you ask for a link provide the exact html code to insert on the web page. This saves the site owner time trying to figure it out for himself.

How often should you vary your anchor text?

If you use the same link text for 100s of pages it may be viewed as spamming the search engines. Vary the text and/or web page address to mix it up.

Example

Instead of using "red shoes" in your hyperlinks, use bright red shoes, small red shoes, large red shoes. All phrases are different but still contain "red shoes". Instead of linking to the same "red shoes" page, link to related pages. This will help strengthen the linking structure of your website.

Where should you get links from?

• Do a back link check on the top 10 sites in your niche by using Yahoo Explorer. Look for sites that allow you to add your web site link.
• Write articles on niche topics then vary the anchor text in the resource box at the end of the article.
• Submit your site to specialized and general directories.
• Include a hyperlink in your comments when visiting related bogs and forums.
• Acquire hyperlinks from social media sites such as YouTube, MySpace, Facebook.
• Use social bookmarking sites to get additional links.

When doing a link building campaign, use anchor text (instead of a URL) to increase your link popularity. You'll get higher rankings and generate more web traffic.