Optimized Links

Take a look at the following links. Which of the following do you think would lead a potential customer to click on it?

• http://www.schoolandteacher.com/
• Free Teacher Websites

Now, put your mouse over each. Do you notice anything special when you put your mouse over the one that is for "Free Teacher Websites"? The contents of the title tag show up. When a human looks at the links, it is obvious that the second one is for "Free Teacher Websites".

Search engines take this into account too. If the other websites that links to you say that clicking on this will take you to a resource for "Free Teacher Websites", then you will get ranked higher for that keyword phrase. They take into account the link text first, and then possibly some weight to the link title. Note that the link title should be 50% larger than the link text.

WHEN OPTIMIZING YOUR WEBSITE

A big part of optimizing your website is to manage your keywords - and how they are sprinkled throughout your text. An important place to put them is in your link text. This is effectively describing to the user what that page is about. And search engines consider this highly.

Do you have links to other high-profile (high traffic, high page-rank) sites with your keyword text? This shows that you have some non-biased resources.

How are your page navigation links describing your other pages? Check the link text. Does it include some of your keywords for that page?

WHEN SUGGESTING BACKLINKS

Now, if you are requesting backlinks, it is always good to spell out what you want. You can now see the importance of having a nicely formatted link to your website. When you email other webmasters asking for backlinks, you should include the following - so they can write such a link.

• The URL of where you want the link to go to
• The Text for the link
• A suggested description for the link. (They may use this next to or in the title attribute of the link.)
• The suggested HTML for the link

WHEN PURCHASING TEXT LINKS

How you configure these links can have a significant impact on your ranking. These are usually purchased for the higher ranking websites. Make sure that you have your important keywords in the link text.