Four reasons why Google might not use the anchor text in the links to your website

[djbaxter]

Four reasons why Google might not use the anchor text in the links to your website
Axandra Newsletter
May 18, 2010

The text that is used in the links that point to your website has a major effect on the position of your website in Google's search results.

For example, if many people use the text "buy blue widgets" to link to your website, then it is very likely that the linked web page will get high rankings for the keyphrase "buy blue widgets" in Google's search results.

The link text (also called anchor text) is the text that is used in text links. Example:

< a href=" http://www.example.com">this is the link text< /a>

Unfortunately, not all anchor texts will be used by Google. Check the following things to make sure that the links to your website pass the correct anchor tag:

1. The nofollow attribute
This is a no-brainer. Links to your website that use the rel="nofollow" attribute don't pass the link text to Google. Example:

< a href=" http://www.example.com" rel="nofollow">great keyword< /a>

2. Invalid characters in the URL
If an URL contains invalid extra characters then chances are that search engines won't be able to index the link correctly. Example:

< a href=" http://www.example.com ">great keyword< /a>

In this example, there's a space at the end of the URL. Some webmasters found out that anchor text is not passed to Google if the link contains an extra space character.

Note that most browsers are able to correct this link and they will display the web page correctly. Unfortunately, search engine spiders seem to have more difficulty with malformed links (or they take them as a signal of low quality).

3. The links use 301 redirects
Google's Matt Cutts recently confirmed that Google won't consider all anchor texts that are used in 301 redirected links. Example:

< a href=" http://www.example.com/page.htm">great keyword< /a>

The web server redirects "http://www.example.com/page.htm" to "http://www.example.com" with a 301 redirect. In that case, it's likely that Google won't use the link text.

4. The first link passes the link text
If a page links twice to the same page then Google will use the first link text and discard the other link texts. Example:

< a href=" http://www.example.com">This< /a> is an example. The link text < a href=" http://www.example.com">great keyword< /a> will be ignored by Google.

The first and the second link go to the same URL. In this example, Google will use the link text of the first link, which is "This". The link text of the second link will be ignored by Google.

If the second link points to another page of the linked website, then both link texts will be used by Google:

< a href=" http://www.example.com/page1.htm">This</ a> is an example. The link text < a href=" http://www.example.com/page2.htm">great keyword< /a> will be ignored by Google.

Note: Additional spaces inserted so that example code will display.

 

[JoshOm]

Hey man this was very useful information. Thanks a lot. I really did not know about 4. The first link passes the link text .

 

[djbaxter]

Hey man this was very useful information. Thanks a lot. I really did not know about #4. The first link passes the link text .

To be frank, neither did I and I'm not certain #4 is correct. I need to look into that further.

 

[Cindy Bidar]

This is really interesting. I didn't know about #3 or #4. I'll be interested to see what you find out the second link thing, if you can verify that or not.

 

[Mousee]

I used the links describes in #4 and they worked extremely good for my sites. I think that Google chooses what he wants to take into consideration - first link, second one, or both, or none...

 

[Iainj]

Great post.
I knew about 1 and 3 but assumed that if a webpage was able to understand the extra space and correct it then so would the spiders. For SEO using a 301 redirect or a slightly different url is generally a bad idea. Especially is you don't have a tone of time to spare on link building.

 

[ellehc90]

Search engines includes on page content, the content on pages of other sites that link to your page, and so forth also search engines look at the text immediately preceding and after the anchor link text too.

 

[djbaxter]

Search engines includes on page content, the content on pages of other sites that link to your page, and so forth also search engines look at the text immediately preceding and after the anchor link text too.

Sorry. I'm not getting your point here. What are you saying?

 

[eimroda]

I didn't know #4 until today. Thanks for sharing mate!

 

[StevenFaisal]

These are more valuable tips for newbie like me. However, I belive that nofollow links are stiill counted as a vote to our site. Is it true?

 

[djbaxter]

I belive that nofollow links are stiill counted as a vote to our site. Is it true?

Not by Google, no.

 

[SandraWallen]

Yup... nofollow too has a value, high traffic nofollow blogs are the great resources to drive hundreds of potential visitors to your website. Dofollow can help you to improve your rankings.

 

[djbaxter]

Yup... nofollow too has a value, high traffic nofollow blogs are the great resources to drive hundreds of potential visitors to your website.

Value as a potential source of traffic, yes. Value for search engine ranking, no.

 

[maddie]

What's really scaring me about SEO is the uncertainity. There are some grey areas where you don't know if what you are doing is helping or not.

 

[djbaxter]

What are some of the grey areas that concern you, maddie?

 

[maddie]

A good example would be the quantity versus quality dilemma. Maybe, instead of constanly building backlinks, creating helpful articles for a site's niche, would bring better quality links. This seems a grey area for me.

 

[affilojetpackpreview]

This is very helpful. Thanks for sharing this. I didn't know that there are rules in linking anchor text in Google.

 

[Mike22]

I always use MY-WEBSITE-TITLE - LITTLE-DESCRIPTION-WITH-MY-MOST-IMPORTANT-KEYWORDS

 

[djbaxter]

I would recommend putting the "website title" / domain at the END, not the beginning. It can help with branding but it's not a term most people are going to search for.

 

[Sabrina178]

These are more valuable tips for newbie like me. However, I belive that nofollow links are stiill counted as a vote to our site. Is it true?

If my memory serves me well, a guy named Ben Fisher did a case study to see if nofollow links counted ? they certainly seemed to, based on his results.