The second component of successful search engine optimization is the process of backlinking. Important to understanding how backlinking works in terms of SEO strategy then, is understanding what makes a link a high quality link. A high quality link to your site is one that will include one or more of your website keywords in the anchor text.

The reason a link with the keyword in the anchor text is given more weight than links without your keywords in the anchor text is that it appears that the links are coming from sites with related information when the keywords are found within the anchor text.

A website that has hundreds of incoming links from sites with no relevance to the subject matter of your website will not be as beneficial in terms of search engine optimization as a website with just a few dozen backlinks containing your keywords in the anchor text.

Anchor text is so important that it's possible for a page to appear in the top 10 in Google's search results for a phrase which isn't mentioned anywhere on the page.