It would appear I was wrong all along about anchor text!

Posted by stuart as seo, search engine optimization, search

I’m currently trying out some paid directory submission services, to see what type of service is available for the ridiculously low prices our sub-continental friends charge.

Whilst I understand that directory links are probably not worth that much, at $20 for 300 submissions, I figured that that was still pretty good value. And before anybody mentions it - poor quality backlinks can’t hurt your site, if they could, I could unleash a bit of php to nuke your site into oblivion with about a million dodgy backlinks in fifteen minutes.

Anyhoo, so I’m wading through a plethora of “Confirm your submission to our directory” type emails, which generally have anything from spammy links in them to random SEO advice etc, and I come across this little gem:

Thank you! for your link submission in [directory name] Directory. If your link is approved it will be notified to you by
email. Here are some free seo tips for you. Its important that while
submitting your site to directories you must use your company name or
site name(domain name) in anchor text while giving title. Putting a
keyword in anchor text is a black hat seo and directories taking
keyword in anchor text of a link are getting penalized.

Yeah, those links with your keywords in the anchor text will get you every time!

Sheesh!