The incredible untouchable links

You want to manipulate Google’s search results through link anchor text. Google doesn’t want you to do that. That’s really what it comes down to.

No matter what Google does to prevent you from manipulating link anchor text, you will always find ways to do it. Google can at best only hope to stay one step behind anchor text manipulation techniques.

The rules of link anchor text manipulation are simple:

1. Use whatever links you can get
2. Use whatever anchor text will help you
3. Vary your methods of capturing inbound links as much as possible

Link baiting is the least efficient means of manipulating link anchor text. Hence, Google likes link baiting as long as the baited links look algorithmically natural. That is, if there is variety in the anchor text of the links, you should be okay.

The problem is that variety in link anchor text doesn’t help your search engine results. If you can insert your desired keywords, great for you, bad for Google. But when you give up control over your link anchor text, Google outmaneuvers you (and your anchor text-driven SEO becomes less effective).

Here’s the good news: You can use several current Web design trends to create unique, varying anchor text that still includes your targeted keywords.

Here’s the bad news: I am not going to tell you how to do this. Why? Because as soon as someone shares a deep linking secret on a Web site, the idea is abused. It’s only a matter of time before someone shares the better ideas openly and ruins them for everyone, but I won’t be that person.

But you should be able to figure out several ways to get other sites to link back to your site with unique anchor text that includes your keywords. Just ask yourself, “How can I give unique value to other people’s sites so that they will want to link back to my sites?”

If you don’t pay for links, you don’t have to worry about Google filtering your hard-won links.

If you don’t reciprocate links, you don’t have to worry about Google filtering your hard-won links.

If you don’t participate in link farms, you don’t have to worry about Google filtering your hard-won links.

If you don’t rely on free press release distribution, free article distribution, free directory submission for your links, you don’t have to worry about Google filtering your hard-won links.

If you don’t rely on forum signatures, blog comments, guest books, and profile pages for your links, you don’t have to worry about Google filtering your hard-won links.

If you don’t consider PageRank when getting links, you don’t have to worry about Google filtering your hard-won links.

Let’s say you have a Ring Tones site and you make money when people click on your Google AdSense links. Your business model calls for bringing in visitors such that you get at least a few click-throughs per day. Let’s say you have 10,000 Ring Tones pages.

It’s okay to create 10,000 pages of content as long as the content is unique. Creating 10,000 pages of unique content is not that hard. Getting them indexed and trusted enough to rank in search results is the challenging part. To do that, you’re going to need 50-100,000 inbound links.

You could write a little robot (or buy one) that runs around the Web and drops links in forums and blogs. Problem is, that gets less and less efficient. Bloggers and forum operators don’t like the links and many of those good folks will get rid of the links very quickly.

You can also set up free blogs, profiles, and forums and just hand yourself bajillions of free links. Problem is, that kind of content isn’t trusted. It goes right into the Supplemental Results Index until it earns enough links from trusted sites to graduate into the Main Web Index.

So while most SEOs are babbling nonsense about “authority sites”, TrustRank, and other imaginary factors that have no impact on your search results rankings, you can be developing the tools you need to get links from sites that are not Supplemental.

Since most of you don’t have 10,000 domains to build trust for, your task is much easier than the typical AdSense millionaire’s challenging strategies. Let’s say you only have 1 domain you need those precious value-passing links for.

How many do you want? What are you willing to put into someone else’s hands to get those links? Money may get you some value in the short run, but Google has launched a new initiative against paid links. Now they are asking your competitors to report your paid links so that Google can devalue them.

Google vigilantes will be scouring the Web for paid link pages, depriving many otherwise perfectly worthy sites of a fair chance to rank competitively in search results. So you need to balance your efforts by learning to manipulate Google’s search results with anchor text acquired through other means.

You want the links that editorial choice gives you freely. Any Web site operator can exercise that editorial choice. All you have to do is provide unique value to enough Web site operators that you get your precious links. The Google vigilantes won’t be able to report you for spamming. The Google filters won’t devalue your inbound links.

Problem is, if you dither around now and don’t get in on the first wave of gratuitous value exchanges for links, you’ll find that the key influencers who would be most likely to help you will in fact have helped someone else. At some point, those people won’t need your value to enhance their lives and Web sites.

History teaches us that the SEO community generally lags 1-2 years behind any serious change in algorithmic strategy. There are still plenty of “A” list SEO bloggers and forum moderators handing out the same advice they were sharing two years ago. Most of those people will have changed their tunes by the end of this year for two reasons: the significant losses of rankings many Webmasters suffered from October through January and the new wave of lost rankings that Google will probably unleash over the summer of this year.

You need to create table tents that every Web site will want to put on their tables (I’m speaking figuratively — don’t start babbling about CSS-versus-tables).

You need to create a value-sharing model that provides incentive for other Web sites to link to yours.

You need to show people that linking to your site helps them more than not linking to your site.

You can continue to manipulate Google’s search results. And you should continue to do so (because, frankly, right now they’re not very good in my opinion, so more manipulation is definitely called for until we get rid of the spam).

Just stop relying on all the detailed, very specific techniques that your favorite SEO bloggers and moderators keep sharing and you should come through the next wave of Web site drops okay. Remember, real search optimizers practice the SEO Method: Experiment, evaluate, adjust.

As long as Google allows links to pass anchor text, it will be easy for you to manipulate their search results. All you have to do is stay on top of which linking techniques won’t last much longer so that you can start employing the newer, more effective linking techniques that have not yet been spammed to death.

Go forth, my young apprentices, and use the link anchor text side of The Force. It will always be with you — at least until Google decides to really fix the problem and stop passing link anchor text.