Code: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/which-type-of-link-anchor-text-is-the-most-effective-an-experiment Interesting experiment. They took 3 brand new domains, low competition keywords and submitted same quantity and quality of links, except using the proper anchor text (ie. 'blue jeans') for one, more general but containing the anchor for another (ie. 'your new favourite blue jeans') and completely unrelated for another (ie 'click here') to test, the latter the theory that Google can now spot link relevancy by the surrounding text rather than the actual anchor text. Results after a short while were that the more general anchor links came out on top, with the proper anchor links coming second and the non-related last, although interestingly, the non-related links shot to number 1 within 24 hours, stayed there for a day or two and then disappeared completely. That's when the more general anchors took over again almost appearing from nowhere. Any thoughts on this? Anyone's recent experiences say otherwise? It's a really good article if you've not already read it.
Well I just searched now and I'm getting: 2. YellowSweets.com (long tail) 3. PurpleSweets.com (exact) 5. BlueSweets.com (random) Looks like someones come in to dom with the EMD hahah. Love SEOmoz experiments.
Interesting. Some of the comments in the post do say that it changed a couple of times since. But this is probably showing that Google probably really isn't there, or isn't even interested in, trying to get relevant links simply by the content that surrounds them, for the most part. True, exact anchor text is still relevant, which is something I've been wondering for a while. But if this teaches anything, it seems that it's best to vary your anchors, but keep the context of the keywords that you want.
Yesterday I and my colleague have been discussing about the same topic and today I accidentally found this experiment. In my opinion it is best to use anchors with exact match keyword and some related keywords, this way you can target more keywords and give more natural look.
I guess this also gives it a more 'human' feel. If it were 'real' humans posting links, some would use exact anchor links, but quite a few others wouldn't and would be more general about it. I guess that could be the true 'Google factor' for backlinks.
