Search Engine Advice:
Managing links text TO your website
The word "to" is the key element in this headline.
Search engines are looking for links to your website. One of the things they are looking at is the text that is in those links. So often inexperienced webmasters just ask to "swap links" with another website. Then the webmaster at the linking site just types in the company name, highlights it, and links it to the home page of the requesting site. Opportunities for better search engine rankings are often lost here.
Select the text for links to your site carefully
The text in the link to your website is a factor in determining what terms your site will rank in. A key question that needs to be answered is "What will my potential customers type in the search engine when they are looking for the products or services I am offering?" Focus on terms that you think they will use.
And be specific. You should remember how your search engine experiences have worked. Let's say you lived in Charlotte, NC and needed blinds installed in your home. You probably typed in something like "blinds" into a search engine. You would have gotten a list of companies selling blinds from all over the US. Then you would have typed in "Charlotte blinds" and the list would be reduced to websites of businesses selling blinds with "Charlotte" somewhere in the site text. You may have narrowed the focus again to "Charlotte blinds installation." At this point you would have a good selection of businesses providing the service that you want.
Try to come up with that final selection of words that the customer will type in the search engine. If you focus on a broad term, like "blinds", then you subject yourself to a wide range of competitors. Narrowing your focus narrows the websites competing with you for the search term. The fewer competing sites you have the better your search engine ranking will be.
Vary your text on the links
The text of the links to your website should vary from site to site. A fine restaurant that also has a catering business will want to use a term like "fine dining" in the links when they are coming from a website that reviews dining in the area. But, they will want to use a term like "corporate catering" when they put a link on the corporate events page of the local Chamber of Commerce website.
Huck Huckabee
Small Business Websites & Find Searchers
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