anchor text

[bluepanda]

If anchor text is important, should I alter links to the homepage from just 'home' to something like 'sitename home' as my site names include key words? This wouldn't affect ranking in the short term would it, as the url doesn't change.

[glengara]

I'm all for the use of "proper" anchor text for internal linking, but would be a bit wary of messing with the home page....

[David Wallace]

If it is a text link then you obviously want to use "Home" or "Home Page" as oppossed to something like "Site Topic Home Page" which would look silly. You can use some keyword rich anchor text in alt attributes of graphic navigation but you certainly don't want to go overboard. There is the fine line of using alt attributes for their intended use (describe image or describe page they are linking to) and inserting some keywords.

If you want to link back to home page with some more descriptive text, why not place a keyword rich anchor text behind the main logo of site and link it back to home page or main URL? This way you are describing home page or site and yet still making proper user of textual and graphical navigation.

[Chris Boggs]

As glenngara and David point out, you don't want to go overboard. I think simply using Home" in your nav bar may be the best way to go, unless you really want someone to go back to the home page from within content pages. In most cases, the flow of traffic should be like a pyramid, in my opinion, with the traffic hopefully starting at the home page and drilling down to other pages that get more and more relevant to what they are seeking. This makes the anchor text links used within your content pages more important in support of other 2nd and 3rd level pages.

Perhaps if you have a rotating "special" or something that you offer only on the homepage and regularly update, this would be a reason to bring the visitor back to the homepage. In my opinion, again, I would feel that you would want to direct most people towards a conversion goal instead of back to the homepage. The "Home" navigation tab is one that most Internet users are used-to, and would therefore expect to see on the nav bar. As I always preach, if you place the user in mind first, the search engine will usually follow and rank accordingly. I doubt they would penalize you for using home too much, but if you layer on tons of keywords then you may get into a possibly “flag” territory.

[bluepanda]

Thanks very much for your advice.