With apologies for the cheap trick of mentioning Paris Hilton to get your attention, coming to grips with the idea you're about to discover is critically important to your success with search engines!

Because while it's true that there are many factors that determine how well a page ranks in Google - did you know that one stands out above the rest? It's link text. (Also known as anchor text?)

So much so, link text can be the deciding factor when chasing top rankings for extremely competitive keywords.

And for sure can't hurt for lesser search terms.

You see link text creates what's known as "link reputation". Have enough links using the same phrase as the link text and Google can’t help but conclude that's what the page linked to is all about.

Yeah but…how powerful is the link text of inbound links, really?

Well guess what? It's so powerful you can land top listings for a given keyword phrase without the keyword phrase even appearing anywhere on the page.

Since I can sense your skepticism from here, let me prove it using 6 examples which I was able to dig up in about 15 minutes. Starting with

===> The "website traffic" Mystery

First I did a search for "website traffic" in Google.

When I did the search, (and we both know things can change) this site, http://buytraffic.1st-casinoaffiliateprograms.com, was poised in position #3.

Casino affiliates?

Not necessarily what would come to mind as a site dealing with website traffic now is it?

Yet try as I might, when I searched that page for the term "website traffic" I couldn’t find it. Not even once. But when I went in search of the links to that page however here’s what I did find:

"Buy website traffic - casino traffic -
You can choose to buy website traffic or if you own an
online casino you can buy complete packages including
signups, banner displays and unique visitors. This can
push your website traffic and signups dramatically."

Huh? See that? That listing’s got "website traffic" in the link text. And a couple more times in the description.

I guess the only possible explanation for the #3 ranking for "website traffic" is the link text. That’s what is
causing that page to rank #3 for that term.

===> Cell Phone

For example two I searched on "cell phone". This time Sprint PCS came in at #5 out of 5,100,000 listings in Google.

Once again, the term "cell phone" did NOT appear anywhere on their page.

===> Laptop/Laptops Examples

Next I tried "laptop". The Apple Powerbook listing came in at #4. Yet, and you guessed it, the word "laptop" was no where to be found on that page.

Since I was in the neighborhood, for the fourth example I gave "laptops" a shot. The site <http://www.discountlaptops.com> was sitting in #4 out of 5,910,000 competing pages when I did that search. Yet once again, the word "laptops" doesn’t show up on that page either.

Of course a check of the backlinks turned this up from the Yahoo Directory:

"Discount Laptops - retailer of new and
refurbished notebook computers."

Oh and I found the exact same listing in DMOZ. Since it featured "Discount Laptops" as the link text, it’s only natural Google would conclude the page is about what else? Laptops!

===> Jobs

Monster.com currently holds down the #1 spot for the search term "jobs". Once again, (you beginning to see a trend here?) the word "jobs" does not even appear on that page.

===> Money

Finally I searched on "money". Perched at #16 was MasterCard’s website. <http://www.mastercard.com> Here too, the word "money" was not used even once in the visible text.

===> Summing Up This Link Text Stuff

Based on the evidence when it comes to ranking high in Google, saying link text trumps all is surely not too strong of a statement.

In fact it’s absolutely positively true. Focusing on link text is a surefire Google seo tactic. Yes, content counts, but link text counts for more..

Making link text the closest thing to a sure thing you can get.

Simply put, link text, which is used to develop your site’s link reputation, is one of the most powerful seo techniques going. It gives you ranking momentum like nothing else. Use tightly focused link text with links from high PR pages and you’ve got yourself an unstoppable combination.

So are you capitalizing on the power of link text?

Are you constantly getting links with the appropriate link text in them?

If not why not?

Because as I’ve shown you - link text really does trump all.