Recently, one of our RTV virtual tour providers sent me an email asking me how to use anchor text in their AR profile and blog. I decided to put together a quick 5 minute (actually less than that) video on how to use anchor text in your AR profile and blog.
So what is up with anchor text? Why is it so important?
Anchor text tells robots and search engines what the web page you are linking to is about. It also helps with what is called relevancy. Relevancy, as far as SEO is concerned, is basically a measure of how related content on one web page is to another web page. And it is important. So without getting too complicated, if you have a real estate blog linking to your real estate website, you want to use anchor text to tell search engines to go to your site while at the same time telling them a little about the content of the site. That is how you get indexed properly in Google.
Anchor text is sort of like a little directional road sign on the internet. “Virtual Tours in XYZ city over here” or “Real estate in ABC County over there”.
There are a few more factors involved, like making sure that you are using the anchor text as web page keywords, in the description and in the content of the webpage to which you are linking. That is all part of optimizing your site for search engines. But, I won’t get into that here. RTV Inner-Circle members can check out our SEO guide for more information.
If you would like more quick tips like this, subscribe to http://www.youtube.com/user/cherylwaller I just created the account tonight to start making quick 4 or 5 minute videos to give our dealers powerful tidbits of information. It is nothing like what we include in our dealer webinars, Inner-Circle membership or RTV eNews but definitely worth 5 minutes of your time every now and then.
Cheryl Waller National Marketing Manager RTV, Inc. (866) 947-8687 http://www.realtourvision.com
PS - if you like the tips… sign up for our RTV eNews or connect to me on your favorite social network. My username is cherylwaller (all one word) on all of my networks.
Thanks, I haven't updated my Active Rain profile in a while and it needs some updating. It looks like Active Rain Blogs are no follow, but the profile pages appear to follow. Is that correct?
John, The answer is “No, But”… I am pretty sure that you are talking about keywords that are in the Meta and you can right click ‘view source’ to see the Meta that AR uses. They do not use keywords in the Meta BUT they are using the first 220 characters of your blog post in the description.
So use your keywords in the first 220 characters and throughout your blog. Also make sure that your keyword is in the TITLE of the page you are linking to… as well as the keywords & description (and don’t forget the content of the target page).
Don’t overload your content with keywords. Saying the same thing over and over is not going to attract readers or search engines. Basically just provide good content and remember to stay on topic.
John, sorry… I missed the question above that. The comment section on active rain (this section) is no-follow… so if I provide a link here it would be to provider actual readers with additional information, to clarify a point or direct someone to my blog or website (don’t do this unless you are actually helping someone… it is generally frowned upon and considered blog spam)
The links below here (your name and the date) are follow. So as you leave comments you are creating more internal links throughout AR back to your profile.
Your profile is also follow and is where you WANT to use your anchor text and link back to your website. Most profiles are follow, so make sure you are using your anchor text in ALL of your profiles. The two key places you should be using anchor text religiously are in your profile and on your blogs.
I think I am getting the hang of "Linking" but it is not always easy to do it correctly. I learn so much everyday here in Active Rain and with the RTV Blogs. I hope you can see the improvement.
Have a great week!
Carol Harris, Pro Tours Unlimited, Realtor(R), ABR, e-PRO
Cheryl, I have really been trying to improve my SEO and understand what I'm doing. I searched AR for Anchor Text and found your video here. Very informative. I notice that you didn't put titles in the links. Is that necessary? Is it better to not put them in?
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
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Cheryl, this is fabulous information!