Tim Grice published a summary of a study he completed named Anchor Text Has Lost Its Edge. Let me summarize in bullet format:
- Building a strong domain is far more important than anchor text.
- Get links to all your pages, not just home page.
- Get links from a diverse set of sites
- Too many sitewide links don't help
- Use of same anchor text for all your links over and over again doesn't help
- Make sure many of your links use your brand name when linking to you
After summarizing the study, I don't think most link building experts would find these concepts new. But the thing here is, as he said:
I have the privilege of working with some of the biggest brands and best in house teams in the UK, that provides insight into multiple industries and the above trend is being played out in multiple markets, carry on doing the same thing you have been doing for years but trust me you’ll end up back at square one.
So he has a lot of data to back this, he said.
Forum discussion at Sphinn.