How To: Anchor Text, Link Structure, & 301 Redirects

We have entered into the most crucial area of Search Engine Optimization. This is the third article in the series titled “5 Ways to be The Master of Your Domain”. As a forewarning, there is enough information regarding link structure and anchor text to write an entire book. I will be highlighting the main points in order to avoid drowning you in text.

How To: Link Structure, 301 Redirects, & Canonical URLs

Problems:

• 1.) Search Engines hate duplicate content and penalize your SEO Ranking because of it.
• 2.) Search Engines think http://yourdomain.com and http://www.yourdomain.com are different websites with identical content.

Solutions:

• 1.) Internal Link Structure – For a new website this is crucial. Make sure to stay consistent on how you link throughout your site. Always stick to either a www or non www format. It’s also good practice to choose a format with or without a trailing slash for each link (yourdomain.com VS yourdomain.com/), though Matt Cutts has stated in an interview that Google has become very good at looking past this discrepancy.
• 2.) 301 Redirects – 301 redirects are hands down the best way to tackle this linking problem. For our website the redirect states that anytime someone tries to enter the site using http://synactable.com it will immediately reroute them to the site http://www.synactable.com. Search Engines also see this redirect and credit any incoming links to the right page. The only downside is you need to have access to your server in order to accomplish it.
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• 3.) Canonical URLs – This is the poor-man’s 301. It’s a link coded into the head tag of a webpage that acts like a flag to search engines to let them know which URL structure should be used.
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• 4.) Webmaster Tools – Most search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing have Webmaster tools. These tools are a great medium between webmasters and search engines. Google has a specific place to declare if you would like the www or non www to be the URL used.
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• 5.) Sitemaps – Make sure to submit an updated xml formatted sitemap to each. This will let the search engines know what pages to look for and how you prefer the URL to be seen. The easiest way to create an xml sitemap is through a free sitemap generator.

How To: Link Building

Link Building is the bread and butter of SEO. If you truly want to skyrocket to the top of your favorite Google keyword you will have to receive links to your site from other credible sources. This shows search engines that other people consider your information valuable.

Bad Habits:

• 1.) Too Many Directories – Submitting your website to thousands of online directories is time consuming and rarely worth it. There are only a handful of directories like Yahoo’s and DMOZ that are really worth the effort.
• 2.) Buying Links – This is trying to cheat the system and it will quickly end with you in Google’s doghouse.
• 3.) Reciprocal Links – “I’ll link to you if you link to me” sounds great in theory, but search engines account for it. The links aren’t completely discredited, but they are severely devalued.

Good Habits:

• 1.) Guest Post – Guest post on a well known industry blog. Though it’s never fun giving away a piece of your work, it’s a great way to tap into another audience and create a quality backlink to your website.
• 2.) Comment on Blogs – Most blogs have an area to enter a website when you comment on a post. Make sure you add an article or website that is relevant to both the post and your comment, or you risk looking like a spammer. Even blogs that nofollow their links can still help drive traffic to your site, and more traffic leads to more links.
• 3.) Social Media – Use your network to help expand your reach. Let everyone know what you’re doing and why it’s useful. It’s very likely they’ll continue to pass on the word to their friends.
• 4.) Create Valuable Content – In the end this is the number one way to gain links. If you create worthwhile content people will love linking to it and search engines will love crawling it.

How To: Anchor Text

Anchor Text – When you link from one article to another on your site the anchor text is vital. Anchor text is the word/words that normally become highlighted and underlined to signal a link. (This is Anchor Text) These tell search engines what to expect on the page being linked to.

Bad Habits:

• 1.) External Keywords – If you have a page that you want to rank high for the term “SEO” then make sure not to include the term “SEO” in anchor text pointing to other sites. This tells search engines that the site you’ve linked to is the authority for that term.
• 2.) Internal Keyword Confusion – Even linking to other pages on your own site with your currently targeted keywords can hurt rankings. Search engines become confused at which page should rank for that keyword. This will inevitably hurt the ranking of both pages.

Good Habits:

• 1.) Content Blocks – Search engines read more than just the anchor text. They also read the text that is immediately surrounding the link to see if it is relevant. It is best to link out to a page that is relevant to the anchor text as well as the surrounding information to enable the maximum benefit.
• 2.) Alt Attribute – If you use a picture as a link to another page it is important to realize that the Alt Attribute for that picture will then becomes the anchor text for that link.
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This may seem like an abundance of information but it really just scratches the surface. If you’re left with nothing else, make sure to remember that
Good Content = Good Rankings.

Do you have your own personal favorite link building tips and tricks? Let us know by commenting below!