Post-Penguin Link-building: Contextual Relevance

Q: How important are these 2 factors on links as votes:  1) what the site is about?  2) the anchor text itself?

Answer.

Post-penguin, link building has become all about quality. What is quality? First, that the website is real… not some junk thrown together by SEO link builders as a low quality blog, but a real site, run by a real person with real content. Second, that the site has quality content as measured by things like good grammar (no article spinning!). Third, that the website is thematic. A blog should have a theme. This blog, for example, is all about SEO tips – so all the content is thematically connected to SEO, Social Media, and/or AdWords. There isn’t content on other stuff.

So in terms of your question… I would definitely, if at all possible, try to get inbound links from contextually relevant sites first and foremost. Then in terms of keyword-rich anchor text, I would also strive to get that.  BUT do not overdo the anchor text optimization!  Overoptimization on keywords is a dead-give-away to Google so –

1/3 inbound links: http:// format (naked)

1/3 inbound links: branded (e.g., JM Internet Group)

1/3 inbound links: keyword relevant.

Quality is where the game is at!