Anchor Text and Content

[rmasse10]

I have been thinking of this and don't really know the answer so I will throw it out there. The content on ones website, blog, whatever, if that content is used as anchor text to point somewhere else, does it count as text on the page.

In other words, lets say that I have the words florida real estate on my page and in my meta tags keywords. In this example, lets also use that term to point someone to another page on my site. Do those words count in my density calc.

Please let me know

thanks

[kid disco]

Anchor text is text.

[Portland Real Estate]

I agree with kid disco. Anchor text counts as text afaik.

[Gerry]

I agree that it's a difficult question, because, while text is text, anchor text is text which serves to describe another page.
If I were a search engine, I would want to be conscious of this.

Put differently:
When your page links to another page, and uses the anchor text "Florida Real Estate", that is an indication that the destination page is about Florida real estate - not the page with the (anchor) text.

[Bigtoe]

text is text is text

[ericbramlett]

JMO, but don't worry about your keyword density calculation. IMHO, write naturally about one topic per page. Make sure your meta's match your topic. Keyword density is bull****, IMO.

[Gerry]

text is text is text

Agreed, but, search engines can read html as well as text, and may treat hypertext as a different kind of text. I dunno.

I agree with Eric about kw density being moot. However, it's good to know which elements of a page are considered to describe that page's contents (i.e., rank it for kw's), especially when it comes to secondary/longtail kw's that can't make it into the meta title.

[Philman]

I would have to agree with the idea that text is text, no matter if it's anchor or not. Just think about this: if you go to your website have check out the Google cache snapshot, does it show your anchor text? Yes.

If you are not familiar with it, the cache snapshot is how you can pretty much look at your website (or any website in general) from a spider's standpoint. It won't show any code or anything fancy, as spiders are known for just being able to analyze text (even though that idea is evolving).

[MisAlissa]

I just thought I would throw in my 2 cents.......................

If your page is about Florida real estate and you are providing a link pertaining to that.... then it is all good. SEs like it when you give additional references pertaining to your topic.

What would be even better is if that link goes to a sub page within your site.

If you are concerned about density, while this has minimal relevance to rank, it will definitely count.

As what has been said before............

Text is text is text despite if it is a link or not.

[Bhamhomes]

In other words, lets say that I have the words florida real estate on my page and in my meta tags keywords. In this example, lets also use that term to point someone to another page on my site. Do those words count in my density calc.

I would agree that SE's consider text whether it's text linked or not. Having text hyperlinking to other pages within your site probably enriches your site, especially if these other pages are content rich...