Linking continues to be one of the most important aspects of achieving high rankings in most search engines, and in particular, Google. The more links leading to your site from other URLs that have content relevant to your site (and preferably a high ranking themselves), the higher your search engine rankings will be. Linking pages within your site are also valued by the search engines and help with rankings.

The words used in links leading to pages of your site are referred to as "link anchor text." Link anchor text can be used in both internal pages of your site and in links from other URLs leading to your site.

If you had a site on marriage counselling and you were also using those words as keywords you would include them in the link anchor text from other web sites pointing to pages of your site. For example, the anchor text should read something like, "For more information go to marriage counselling, with the link on the words marriage counselling, The search engines will value this type of link more than one that reads, "For more information on marriage counselling go to www.thissite.com with the link being on thissite.com.

You would do the same thing for linking internal pages of your web site as you direct visitors to specific pages. You can also use your keywords in the anchor text of your navigation map at the bottom of your pages.

Juliet Austin

Juliet Austin is a Marketing Coach, Consultant and Copywriter who assists counselors, therapists, coaches, alternative health professionals, and socially responsible businesses in marketing their practices and businesses. She helps her clients overcome resistances to marketing, learn no or low-cost marketing strategies, create compelling promotional materials, and write effective website copy.