PageRank and Ranking High in the SERPs

Well, I hope that you guys learnt a great deal from my previous post that was a very simplified version of understanding PageRank. Really, it couldnt get any simple than that. :) So anyways, in this post, I'm going to touch on PageRank in more detail. How PageRank and Links are related and how to use it to your advantage when optimizing your site/page. Hope you are ready for this SEO explaination ;)


Anchor Text

Ok for the benefit of those not in the know, I shall explain this term "Anchor Text". Its very important to know what it means because I will be mentioning it in the coming paragraphs.
So what is anchor text?
Anchor text is basically the text that you use for a link. For example, for the following link :

Young Talented Good Looking SEO Consultant from Singapore

the anchor text in this case is simply "Young Talented Good Looking SEO Consultant from Singapore" while " http://seo-singapore-consultant.blogspot.com/ " is the link that it points to.
That really can't get any easier to understand so if you don't, go hire an seo consultant and standby shitloads of money because you're probably gonna get cheated anyway. :p

Another term that I would be using is "Keyword Authority".

What is Keyword Authority?

Its basically ranking high/having authority (remember my post about links? If not, go read : Search Engines and Links ) for a certain keyword. For example, if your site is about hiring an seo consultant, you rank high for that keyword, and you have links to you from related pages with high PR containing "hiring an seo consultant" as the anchor text or any of its variation, you're said to have Keyword Authority for the keyword "hiring an seo consultant".

That should be simple enough. Still with me?

Good.

Anyway, moving on.. So how are PageRank, Links, Keyword Authority and Anchor Text related to each other?


They all contribute in ranking your page for a certain keyword. How?


LINKS with the ANCHOR TEXT of your keyword, coming from pages with high PAGERANK that are related to your keyword, would give you KEYWORD AUTHORITY for your keyword.


So basically, like I said in my previous post, you might have a PR 10 for all I care, but if the links back to your site contain mostly your name as the anchor text, you're only going to have keyword authority for your name, and not what your website is about.



Now do you understand why I emphasise that PageRank is simply not everything about Google?


Like I said in my previous post, it is the measure of a webpage's popularity on the web, by counting how many links are pointing to it.

BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT,

In order to have KEYWORD AUTHORITY for a certain keyword, then the links back to your site should contain your keyword in the anchor text, and better, variations of it scattered among the links.

That's simply it :D


Summary

Garnering links with anchor text containing variations of your keyword would increase your PageRank as well as your keyword authority, and this can help you rank higher in the SERPs.

And that is what you, me and everyone else wants :D


PS : Be Forewarned though, that because of the complexity of the calculation of PageRank, its not always easy to gain keyword authority for a certain keyword. And also, your on site optimization (your content, coding etc etc) still play a part. ;)

Email or comment if you have any queries!


Till then,

Jasa, Singapore SEO Consultant