Choosing between Non branded and branded anchor texts?

[seotrafficsearch]

Some of the websites choose to use branded anchor texts in their links where as some choose to use non branded anchor texts in their links. Which one do you think weighs more and why? Does it really matter that which niche the keyword belongs to? Or is there any just the rule of thumb?

[Stevie D]

Some of the websites choose to use branded anchor texts in their links where as some choose to use non branded anchor texts in their links. Which one do you think weighs more and why? Does it really matter that which niche the keyword belongs to? Or is there any just the rule of thumb?

I'm not really sure what you mean by "branded anchor texts" – can you give us an example?

[timesheet]

Some of the websites choose to use branded anchor texts in their links where as some choose to use non branded anchor texts in their links. Which one do you think weighs more and why? Does it really matter that which niche the keyword belongs to? Or is there any just the rule of thumb?

Are you talking about using "Brand Names" and "Keywords" as anchor text here?

If yes, then the answer would be this:

SEO is not just promoting websites for certain keywords on search engines, but also to build brand online. People who want their websites ranked for certain keywords on any search engines would use keywords as anchor texts and whoever want some popularity for brand, they would build anchor texts with brand name or website domain name.

I hope this answers your question.

[seotrafficsearch]

I'm not really sure what you mean by "branded anchor texts" – can you give us an example?

For instance, sitepoint.com is your site and you want to build links for sitepoint.com. So the branded anchor text for the brand sitepoint would be:
sitepoint
site point
Site Point
sitepoint.com

For non-branded keywords you would use anchor texts such as SEO Forums, Internet Marketing Forums etc.

[Stevie D]

For instance, sitepoint.com is your site and you want to build links for sitepoint.com. So the branded anchor text for the brand sitepoint would be:
sitepoint
site point
Site Point
sitepoint.com

For non-branded keywords you would use anchor texts such as SEO Forums, Internet Marketing Forums etc.

Ah, gotcha. Which works best for you will depend on how well-established your brand name is. If you're building links for Amazon then it's fair to use 'amazon' pretty much exclusively – whereas if you're building links for a start-up retailer then just giving their name with no indication of what the site does isn't going to be as helpful. A compromise is to make the brand name into the link and to give the keywords in the surrounding context – that will help Google to understand the link and to relate the site and brandname with the keywords, eg

Buy this book from daintree.com, an exciting new online book shop!

[seotrafficsearch]

Ah, gotcha. Which works best for you will depend on how well-established your brand name is. If you're building links for Amazon then it's fair to use 'amazon' pretty much exclusively – whereas if you're building links for a start-up retailer then just giving their name with no indication of what the site does isn't going to be as helpful. A compromise is to make the brand name into the link and to give the keywords in the surrounding context – that will help Google to understand the link and to relate the site and brandname with the keywords, eg

Exactly Steve! Now lets take the example which you cited. The daintree.com is the brand anchor text which you used and if you had used the linked embedded in "new online book shop" it would have been non branded anchor text!. And yes, using surrounding text around the anchor text helps us stay safe!