Mixing up anchor text

[vicky1982]

Hi!
I'm sorry if this has been asked before.
On our site we have many product pages. Each page is linked to from serveral different pages.

Is it is a good idea to mix up the anchor text? For example a link to apples.html on one page has the anchor text "cheap apples", and a link to the same page from another page has the anchor text "apples for sale".

Providing it is not confusing for the user, is this a good idea? Or could a search engine see this as over optimisation and maybe penalise/ignore it? Does the anchor text from internal links count?

Thank you very much!

[wednesday]

Originally Posted by vicky1982

Or could a search engine see this as over optimisation and maybe penalise/ignore it?

I don't think you'll be penalized for this. IMO it's NOT a bad idea to mix the anchors wherever is posible, if it's not overdone (as example mixing anchors in menus).

Does the anchor text from internal links count?

Yes.

[DMC_34]

Use synonyms to embed links in actual content more so than alternating link text in menus. IMO Google actually prefers this.

[wrmineo]

I think it's smart to "change up" anchor text and name anchors for all the reasons stated, and, to ensure you're not in fact penalized for name anchor spamming, which is possible looking at the snippets of the Google Patent.

Make sure you check your site's link validity when/after doing this to make sure, especially with name anchors, that you've not incorrectly typed one or added a repeat as with a name anchor.

It's a little cumbersome, but I like to use the W3C Link Checker.

[aaronpaul]

Originally Posted by DMC_34

Use synonyms to embed links in actual content more so than alternating link text in menus. IMO Google actually prefers this.

I would agree. I would focus more on "natural sounding" contextual links. I think what you're doing with the menu anchor text should be fine. Don't worry too much about it, Google is a big loveable teddy bear.

[wednesday]

Originally Posted by aaronpaul

Don't worry too much about it, Google is a big loveable teddy bear.

Just don't irritate the 'teddy bear' if you don't want to meet f2f 'The GrayBared Teddy Bear (More famous as TGBTB)' or find yourself constantly reading threads like 'I cannot be found in Google by my company name, plss help me sweet TB'. heh ;)

[wrmineo]

Originally Posted by .martin

Just don't irritate the 'teddy bear' ...

:) LOL - don't poke the bear, for sure!

[DreamingEagle]

Originally Posted by vicky1982

Hi!
I'm sorry if this has been asked before.
On our site we have many product pages. Each page is linked to from serveral different pages.

Is it is a good idea to mix up the anchor text? For example a link to apples.html on one page has the anchor text "cheap apples", and a link to the same page from another page has the anchor text "apples for sale".

Providing it is not confusing for the user, is this a good idea? Or could a search engine see this as over optimisation and maybe penalise/ignore it? Does the anchor text from internal links count?

Thank you very much!

It's a really good idea to mix it up internally, and an even better idea to vary the anchor text on the other sites which link to you.

[ditto]

There is mention of this in the recent patent disclosure from Google along with some other interesting details. I wrote an article coverng the patent recently -
http://www.how-to-make-money-online....-Algorithm.php

hth,