Okay, going back in time here for a second, I remember when link exchanges were a huge thing. I remember that with every single site I would build, there’d be a “resources” page or some sort of hacked up, hand-coded “directory” that would be a standard inclusion in the design package. I remember when it was important to send out link exchange request emails, and never once would I use an automated program to do it, but more than 75% of my “work day” was spent searching out relevant, related sites, placing a link on a client’s resources page, and sending out an email. I’ve even written posts and pages about it on this very site, because well - it was just something that SEO’s and Internet Marketers did. *Note to self: Update your own site, Lara!*

I had a client once, when working for another SEO company, whose contract stated we’d get them 100 link exchanges. I should’ve known back then when it took me nearly a YEAR to get them all, that something was shifting in the linking strategies.

I had designed spreadsheets to track everything. The first column was the date I worked on getting the links. The second was where “our” link would be found on their site. The third was either a web page where I submitted the request, or an email address. The next were a series of “x-marks” where I’d indicate if I’d submitted the request, linked to them, and if they approved our link. It was a beautifully complicated spreadsheet.

The one thing I remember most, is being so absolutely anal about the anchor text of our link on their site. Anchor text is the word or phrase used that contains the link. I would change the required anchor text once a month or so, so that it would never appear to the search engines that we were trying to get found for just one phrase or what have you. That would’ve been considered spamming!

So here we are in 2007, and given the social nature of the web these days with blogs and social networks and so on, it’s been difficult to find out exactly what phrases people are using to link to you. Often times it’s your company or website name, but sometimes (especially given the fact that we all fell prey to link exchange pages at one point or another) it’s using your keywords. Wouldn’t it be grand to know for sure? Well, Google can help!

If you haven’t already, check out Google’s Webmaster Tools. You’ll have to submit and verify ownership of your domain (don’t worry, it’s a simple process, and Google walks you through it), and then click on the link to manage your site.

Next, click the Statistics tab, then choose Page Analysis. Here you can take a look at how Google’s robots (”Googlebot”) sees your site. It’s far different than how a regular visitor sees it! Anyway, there are two columns here, one takes a look at the top anchor text links used to link from within your site (internal links - this is very informative, and a good way to check on what you need to fix on your own site) and the text people are using to link to you from their own sites, or inbound links.

Especially if you’re running a blog, you’re going to find that some of these phrases might be considered odd for what you’re expecting. Bloggers interlink to each other constantly, and often they’ll link to a post or article of yours with their own idea of what the link should read. This holds true pretty often, so just don’t be surprised! But this tool gives you a good idea of the phrases you’re being found for, and will help you decide either what to keep working on, or that you might need to do some keyword research and get cracking on some link work.

Hat Tip: Google Tutor

Popularity: 17% [?]