Quality inbound links to your website play a large role in the top search engines algorithms; the actual anchor text of the link also is one of the key factors for evaluating that specific link. The anchor text lets the robot, or crawler, know what to expect from the page it is landing on.
A company with a strong brand name can run into a few issues when it comes to SEO. If no link building strategy was laid out, chances are most of the inbound links to a well branded company’s web site will have the brand name as anchor text. If the site you are working on could be considered a “dinosaur” chances are you are dealing with a plethora of links that are not utilizing your top performing keywords in the anchor text.
There are a couple of things to keep in mind when approaching this issue. First, a strong brand name is important. You do not want to completely negate the brand name your company has built for SEO purposes. You marketing team may have a couple issues with that. At the same time it is important to include your high converting keywords within the anchor text of your inbound links.
Marketing, PR, along with your SEO and social media teams need to all be on the same page to overcome this dilemma. It will be important to have your marketing and PR team promote your product with your brand name and tops keywords together. Also make sure that the messages you are delivering through social media clearly showcase the keywords you are attempting to have as anchor text for inbound links. If someone is already using your brand name for a Twitter account an alternate option could be a @handle that combines your brand name and a top converting keyword string.
For example let’s say Ford is attempting to jump into the hybrid car market. Ford’s website likely has tens of thousands of inbound links with the anchor text “Ford”. You search for “Ford” and you going to be directed to their website, but if you search for “hybrid cars” they are nowhere to be found. It will be important for your marketing and PR team to place your strategically planned out keywords in their press releases and advertising initiatives.
Creating a niche social media identity specifically to promote you’re the new hybrid line of cars could Ford could also help with this issue. If you are interacting with bloggers and other green related industry types and your twitter name is something like “@FordHybrid” they will be used to associating the two together,and when it comes time to link to you page they will do what comes instinctively and use both terms in the anchor text.
Now let’s pretend “Hybrid Cars” is the top searched keyword and even though Ford may rank low for the term it converts well when users find their way to the site. Having your marketing efforts include terms such as “Ford’s Hybrid Cars” or “Ford | Hybrid Cars” can help you boost your SEO results while still including your brand name. Hopefully when someone goes to write a blog post about Ford’s new hybrid cars, they will actually use the anchor text “Ford’s new hybrid cars” instead of only using “Ford” as the anchor text.
This will help Ford not only continue to have a strong brand name but associated it with hybrid cars, and should have a positive effect in SERPs as well for your keywords. Make sure to use keyword variations like “Electric Cars from Ford” or “Hybrid Automobiles by Ford” as well.
And if you happen to be one of those working with a dinosaur, make sure to check your internal linking strategy as well. Chances are there are quite a few links linking back to your homepage and other sections of your site with your brand name as the anchor text.
Justin Freid is the Traffic and Lead Delivery Manager for Petersons College Search and StudentEdge College Planning. Justin works in the product development, SEO and creates social media strategies for Petersons and is currently pursuing an MBA at Philadelphia University. You can find Justin’s thoughts on the world of social media and SEO on his blog, Justin Freid – Search and Social Media Marketing and follow him on Twitter under the handle @Justin_Freid
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Justin,
Thanks so much for this article. I'm just now laying out a strategy for search engines and this article has helped me rethink a few of the directions I want to go.
I've got to admit, I'm not sure what your @handle example means. I'd really like to understand and map out a strategy.
Thanks again!
John
Hi John,
I am glad my article pointed you in the right direction.
When I referenced “@handle” I was referencing your twitter handle or twitter screen name. The example I used above would be similar to if you were in SEO and made your twitter screen name @JohnSEO instead of just @John.
Your brand name “John” would also be associated with a keyword you were targeting “SEO” etc… Hope that helps.
Very informative post. I have previously only used one twitter account to reach a few different markets. Any buzz I have created has only lead to inbound links with my brand name as the anchor text. I am going to take your advice and see if I can produce some more SEO friendly links.
Within companies there is often a distance between SEO and marketing teams. Your points in your post reflect perfectly what needs to happen. Marketing and SEO need to come together hand and hand to really reap benefits.
great post..could i post this post to my blog ?
i will write you are the original poster.
We prefer that you don't repost the whole post. If you'd like to quote sections and link back to the article you can. But please don't copy the whole post in its entirety.
-Seth Goldstein
Editor/Publisher
great post..could i post this post to my blog ?
i will write you are the original poster.
We prefer that you don't repost the whole post. If you'd like to quote sections and link back to the article you can. But please don't copy the whole post in its entirety.
-Seth Goldstein
Editor/Publisher
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