Effect of URL only backlinks (no anchor text)

[lazycat]

Does a simple link back to your site like this: http://www.whateverthesiteiscalled.com have any meaningful effect on SERPs? That's the URL only, with no anchor text involved.

Has anyone tested, or had experience with this?

I have been thinking of submitting a few articles to some of those article directories but most only give you a byline with a URL-only backlink to your site - no anchor text.

The link would be on a thematically similar page to my own site, which I'm going to assume is a good thing (if not now, then for the future) but the link itself would have no on-theme anchor text to support it.

Any opinions on the value of this kind of link for SEO purposes?

[jlknauff]

IMO you probably won't get a lot of effect for SEO but if it's related you could get some traffic from it. I would still do it if you already have the articles to submit-it can't hurt.

[lazycat]

That's what I thought. Maybe a little google PR boost (for whatever that is worth now) and maybe a little traffic but not much else.

I guess it's always possible to politely ask anyone who does decide to reprint an article on their own website if they would change the linking text to something more friendly.

I'll give it a shot.

[seo guy]

Actually it does help in the sense that it makes your site appear more natural, one of the components of a good links campaign is diversity - not just kw loaded links, but random links which can include your domain as anchor.

[earlpearl]

Definitely do it. First of all the articles, if the theme is good, can rank for keyword phrases that work for you. Traffic will move to your site from the article. If the keywords in the article work well plunk some backlinks to the article for the keywords and the article will rank higher and the link to your site will carry a wee bit more weight. This has worked for us.

Dave

[lazycat]

Hmm, I never actually thought about getting the article itself to rank highly in the SEs. I'll definitely bear that in mind with future submissions. Thanks for the help.

[lazycat]

Another thing I was thinking...

Is is better to submit an article to one or two quality article directories/sites or to submit to as many as possible?

I'm thinking in terms of duplicate content penalties placed on similar articles outweighing the potential for more exposure on multiple sites.

Any thoughts or experiences on this? :)

[Atomical]

If Google decides the page is about brown widgets and Google also decides your site is about brown widgets I think there is a connection.

[glengara]

On the link with no anchor text thing, I've a page that targets "SEO widgets" with about a dozen internal links using that anchor text.

Recently noticed it's now ranking for "search engine optimization widgets", and is particularly high in an allinanchor search.

AFAIK there are no links to that page with "search engine optimization widgets" as the anchor text, but, the file name for that page is mysite.com/search-engine-optimization-widgets.html.

The only explanation for this I can think of, is if G has added other link topicality factors to the allinanchor mix, in this case, file-names.

[Francisco Aloy]

I think you should use URL links AND anchor text links.

Here's what I do:

When posting at forums I'll use one of my 3 main keyword phrases
as the anchor for my link.

When submitting articles for publication, I'll use the URL.

Of course, anchor text will be much more powerful than a plain URL
because the SE's "read" the anchor text as if it's on your page; in
other words: it will ad further keyword relevancy to the page it's
pointing to.

If I had my way, I'd use anchor text for my articles, but it's not always
feasible.

[madmonk]

certainly do it.

if you cannot have anchor on link...

It helps pass some PR at least or traffic.
almost like a graphic link. :)
remember teh old times when graphic links were hip. lol.

[Francisco Aloy]

[QUOTE=lazycat]Another thing I was thinking...

Is is better to submit an article to one or two quality article directories/sites or to submit to as many as possible?

I'm thinking in terms of duplicate content penalties placed on similar articles outweighing the potential for more exposure on multiple sites.

Any thoughts or experiences on this? :)[/QUOTE]

It's best to get about 5 to 10 articles ready and post them at all locations you can. I mean, devote a serious effort to it. Not all surfers will visit the same spot. The more sources for your installed articles, the more exposure and traffic.

Take the same article and post it at your website and cross link the information. In that way, your website will ad PR to the article.

Take each article and super-optimize it ...why? Because most folks that need content are not going to spend 2 to 4 hours optimizing each page! You will because it's your baby AND will be placed at your website.

The above will help with any filtering for duplicate content. Ask yourself this question: If YOUR copy of the article has been super-optimized and all other haven't; who will get filtered out first?

I know the above thinking is correct because many webmasters hardly have the time to find the article, much less spending hours optimizing it. You will!

Something else that will help is to write another article about the same subject and only use it at your website, never to be released for public use. It's yours and only yours. Likewise, cross link it to all relevant areas of your website and super-optimize it.

If you do things in the above manner, I don't think you'll have to worry too much about any penalty from duplicate content. The edge you've got is that it's your creation.