SEO: Search Engine Optimization Bible

Of course, most of these heuristics apply more specifically to web-site design and less specifically to

keywords and SEO. However, because SEO really should be part of overall site usability, these are

important principles to keep in mind when you’re designing your web site and implementing your

keyword strategies. As mentioned previously, don’t design your web site for SEO. Instead, build it

for users, with SEO as an added strategy for gaining exposure. Always keep the user in mind first,

though. Because if users won’t come to your site, or won’t stay on your site once they’re there, there’s

no point in all the SEO efforts you’re putting into it.

Using Anchor Text

Anchor text— the linked text that is often included on web sites — is another of those keyword

anomalies that you should understand. Anchor text, shown in Figure 4-1, usually appears as an

underlined or alternately colored word (usually blue) on a web page that links to another page,

either inside the same web site or on a different web site.

FIGURE 4-1

Anchor text helps you gain more mileage from your keywords.

What’s important about anchor text is that it allows you to get double mileage from your keywords.

When a search engine crawler reads the anchor text on your site, it sees the links that are embed-

ded in the text. Those links tell the crawler what your site is all about. So, if you’re using your

keywords in your anchor text (and you should be), you’re going to be hitting both the keyword

ranking and the anchor text ranking for the keywords that you’ve selected.

Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule. In fact, everything in SEO has these, and with

anchor text the exception is that you can over-optimize your site, which might cause search engines

Anchor text ............................................................................................................

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Part II SEO Strategies

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