Anchor text is the visible text of a hyperlink, e.g. this text. Search engine spiders use the anchor text to determine what the page it is linking to is about.

So, it is very important that this text is relevant to where it is pointing, for example:

• click here for SEO page – BAD
• free SEO information – GOOD.

Remember keywords and phrases? Well, if they are included in the anchor text for a link, then that tells the search engines that the page the link is pointing to is relevant to the key phrase. Put simply, the more of these ‘relevant’ links you have pointing to your site, the higher your site will rank for that key phrase.

The anchor text of the internal links in your site are equally important for exactly the same reasons.

One SEO factor that is sometimes overlooked is the out going links from your site and in particular the anchor text used in the links. And this is easy for you to fix since you have complete control over where your site links to.

For example, if your main keyword/ key phrase is ‘plumber in Kent‘ it would make your site look like an authority on ‘plumber in Kent’ if it linked out to related sites using the anchor text ‘plumber in Kent’. The problem is that these related sites are going to be competitors and you really don’t want to send them your potential customers.

The obvious way around this is to link to sites related to your product or service which are not direct competitors. Continuing the plumbing example, these would be sites offering plumbing equipment, sites about plumbing training, DIY, home improvement, plumbing forums etc.

You can also be a bit creative with the anchor text you use (providing it is not a link exchange). So you could link out to a plumbing supplies company with the anchor text ‘plumber supplies’ or ‘Kent plumber supplies’.

Perhaps a little less obvious is linking to sites offering the same product or service but outside the area you cover, so they are not direct competitors. If you offer a service nationally you could link to sites based in other countries. Of course this isn’t an option if you are an international business, but if you are an international business, you won’t be reading this little site!

Blackhat search engine optimisation is a label used in the search engine industry to describe techniques used to obtain high search engine rankings that are outside of the search engine guidelines. There is an inference that these techniques are immoral and unethical.

However, the guidelines are dynamic and always changing as search technology and the web develop – what is ‘whitehat’ one day could be blackhat the next. And, there are sometimes legitimate reasons for using a ‘blackhat’ technique.

What does this mean for the individual trying to promote their own site?

It’s all about risk verses results and common sense.

Having text hidden on a page by making the text colour the same as the background colour is very risky. It’s easy for search engines to detect and there is no legitimate reason for doing it.

Optimising ALT and TITLE attributes so they include keywords as well as being descriptive is lower risk. It’s difficult to detect and looks like good, careful coding although it could strictly be termed ‘keyword stuffing’.

If you want to know about more extreme blackhat SEO, check out SEO Black Hat.