Anchor text is a special element in SEO and can play an important role.
Anchor links are one of the important components of our website’s internal and external SEO strategy. Search engines will use anchor text to determine the theme of the linked web page and which keyword should be ranked.
Although anchor text can give us an advantage in rankings, we must use it as carefully as possible to avoid over-manipulation that will lead to being hit by the algorithm and lowering the website ranking. The following will introduce you to the optimization methods of anchor text as well as its types and importance.
What is anchor text?
Anchor text is also called anchor text, anchor link, and anchor text. It is text with clickable hyperlinks on the page. The text effect is usually different from the surrounding text. In addition to the difference in font, color or color, some anchor texts will be underlined. These clearly visible texts are not easy for users to jump by mistake. , so it will hardly affect the user’s browsing experience.
A high-quality anchor text description will attract visitors to click and jump to the linked page, and also allow search engines to understand the relevance of the hyperlinked page to the content of this page, thus helping to improve website rankings.
The importance of anchor text for SEO
Anchor text is a great way to display the content of a linked page to users and search engines, letting users know what they will see when they click on the linked page. Anchor text, on the other hand, provides the right signals to search engine crawlers, which search engines use to index and rank web pages, assuming anchor relevancy plays a role.
If the content of the link is irrelevant to the theme of the website, this may lead Google to believe that the website has the intention of deliberately manipulating rankings and causing a poor user experience, and then penalizes the website. Therefore, everyone should use anchor text carefully and avoid linking to irrelevant content, so as to increase users’ trust in the brand and website content.
Anchor text type
- Brand link
Using your brand name as anchor text, for example: yahoo, is great for building awareness and a safe bet to avoid being marked as spam. - URL link
Only the site URL, no text, for example: https://www.yahoo.com. Although this kind of anchor text is not beautiful, it is not offensive to Google. Because it doesn’t have the potential to use specific keywords to manipulate search rankings.
- Exactly match keywords
An exact match for a specific keyword or keyword phrase you want to rank for, such as: What is anchor text?
This type of anchor text is generally very descriptive, but it can only occupy a small part of the entire website anchor text. If it exceeds 10%-20%, you need to pay attention, because it is very unnatural.
- Partial matching keywords
Partial match keyword means including synonyms of the target keyword in the anchor text. For example, if the linked webpage is about “white sneakers”, the matching anchor text may be “how to wear white sneakers” or “white sneakers recommendations”.
- Universal links
Universal anchors refer to using a general call-to-action (CTA) instead of keyword-specific anchor text. Universal anchors generally use action verbs and are an effective way to encourage more readers to click on the page.
Commonly used universal anchor points include:
Cilck here
Read more
More info
Go here etc.
- Image link
Images can anchor two links together, and since there is no clickable text in the image anchor, Google will use the image instead of text to understand the content of the linked page. Therefore, it is very important to write the alt tag of the image to be descriptive and keyword-centered.
How to optimize anchor text?
- Create natural anchor text
When writing anchor text, you should ensure that it is not deliberate, and you need to use descriptive and natural wording, rather than manipulative keyword anchor text with strong purposes. When search engines determine the content on a linked page, they look at the text and topics surrounding the page to determine whether the anchor text is relevant to the topic.
Additionally, Google’s Penguin algorithm penalizes SEO efforts that manipulate ranking effects by using the same text in every anchor link.
- Consider reader search intent
Consider your readers’ search intent and make sure your anchor text matches the context of your content.
- Don’t deceive readers
Do not set irrelevant anchor text to mislead readers into clicking on the link and browsing to irrelevant content.
- Make it clear that the link text is clickable
When it comes to backlinks, any link that violates Google’s webmaster guidelines will be considered manipulative, resulting in manual or algorithmic penalties.
Therefore, many platforms offer various web page customizations that will mix some anchors with the surrounding text to ensure that users know that this is anchor text and can click on it.
- Avoid keyword stuffing
Keyword stuffing triggers the Penguin algorithm to penalize over-optimized anchor text and low-quality hyperlinks.
- Diverse anchor text
Anchor text variation is a very important factor, don’t use the exact same anchor text over and over again on important pages. When all anchor links are of the same style, it may attract the attention of Google. It may think that you are deliberately manipulating the ranking and punish you, revoking the keyword ranking.
In order to avoid the risks brought by anchor points, many SEO optimizers often discuss how to “naturally” distribute anchor text, usually with the following methods:
50% brand/website anchor
25% topic anchor
10% target keywords and long tail anchors
15% miscellaneous anchor text (image anchor, URL anchor, general anchor, etc.)
- Anchor text should be concise
The correct anchor text length depends on what it is trying to say, and while Google will look at both the anchor and the surrounding text, try not to anchor large swaths of text so as not to ruin the user experience.
- Match anchor text to link type
There are many different types of external links, just like different types of text, links can come from different sources, such as:
Blog content: If you are linking to blog content, it is best to use anchor text that matches or exact keywords.
Forum or blog comments: URL naked anchor is more suitable for forum or blog comments.
Link list: Link list, for example, if you are recommending a popular website with information about the topic, then it is more suitable to use brand anchor text.
Landing page link: Landing pages often end with a link that invites visitors to “click here” or “contact us.”
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