Anchor text

[NiallC]

Is it preferable to have anchor text linking to your home page or to the page you are placing that anchor text actually on?

Opinions?

N

[Dave Hawley]

or to the page you are placing that anchor text actually on?

You mean link the page to itself? No point at all in that. You link (with good anchor text) to the page that you want the customer to go to.

[NiallC]

ok, well here's the confusing part.

I'm trying to improve my Google ranks. The top sites that link to me are of course, ME! lol....

So my thought was why not set them up as optimized for anchor text anyway. There's plenty of places my keywords logically fit. However, I think it may me distracting to have links that take people back to the home page consistently.

I guess this leads me to ask, in the case of Google.....how do they rank the sites that link to you.

Is it via their Page Rank system?

Here's my dilemma:

A search for the term " private investigator atlanta" in Google produces certain results. The second listing in the normal results, only has ONE link to it.

Our site, www.eaglepiservices.com has 3 pages of links.

I don't understand at all how the site listed at #2 could possibly rank over us.

Anybody care to enlighten me on what we're doing wrong and what secret they have that they're doing right????

Thanks!

[Dave Hawley]

However, I think it may me distracting to have links that take people back to the home page consistently

Why? IMO all site pages should have a link back to the home page. In additon, it's a good idea whenever possible, to also have links like See Also:<Anchor text link>

[NiallC]

Thanks Dave. I'll give it a shot and if my rankings improve - they can only improve! - I'll report back.