If you’ve been doing SEO for a while, you know how important anchor text optimization was back in the day to getting your websites to rank high in search engines. But is it still important today?
This article will give you an overview of everything you need to know about anchor text, from best practices to what not to do.
What is Anchor Text?
Anchor text is the visible and clickable text of a hyperlink. It is what allows users to navigate from one web page to another.
When it comes to SEO, anchor text is important because it can help search engines understand what a web page is about.
Example anchor text
Here is an example anchor text code:
Before the Penguin update, having keyword-rich anchor text links was one of the best ways to get your website to the top of search engines.
For example, if I were managing SEO for Rei.com and wanted to rank for outerwear, I would get as many links as possible from related high-authority sites, with keyword-rich anchor text of outerwear, and boom, you’d get a page one ranking.
Then anchor text links using exact match keyword rich anchors would allow you to rank on the first page. Now it will trigger a Google penalty and it just doesn’t work anymore.
Anchor text type
There are many different types of anchor text. Here’s a breakdown of the different types of internal and external links.
Best Practices for Anchor Text
There are some best practices you should keep in mind when it comes to text anchoring.
First, make sure your anchor text is relevant to the page you’re linking to. Irrelevant anchor text can confuse users and search engines alike. Second, vary the use of your anchor text.
Using the same anchor text repeatedly can be spammy to both users and search engines.
We often have no control over who links to your website and what anchor text they use to link to your content.
Keep anchor text to a few words if possible and don’t provide a long sentence that doesn’t feel natural. The anchor text should describe the page you are linking to and help entice end users to click the link.
Finally, keep your anchor text natural. Don’t stuff keywords into your anchor text to game the system; this will only lead to a possible penalty from Google.
Google’s John Mueller recommended this for internal link anchor text:
“In relation to internal links, you are giving us a context signal. So basically you are saying, in this part of my website you will find information about this topic.
And that’s what you would use as the anchor text for those internal links.
So that’s something where, on the one hand, it’s usually something that you want to give users that context as well.
The type of internal links you would use for users usually matches what you would also use for SEO.
That’s something where, thankfully, there’s a good overlap.”
Some great videos can be seen in this article by Roger Montti.
Google Tips for Anchor Text
Not sure what counts as “natural” anchor text? Fortunately, Google has provided some guidelines.
Seconds Googleyour anchor text should be descriptive and concise.
It should provide context to the user and help them understand where they are being taken when they click the link.
In short, your anchor text should give users a good idea of what they can expect to find on the linked page.
What not to do with anchor text
Now that we’ve gone over some best practices for anchor text, let’s look at what not to do with it.
First, don’t overuse exact match keyword rich anchors. This looks spammy and unnatural and will trigger a Google penalty.
Second, don’t use generic anchors like “click here,” “read more,” etc. They provide no context or information about where the user will be when they click the link.
Finally, don’t use excessive cross-linking; too many links going there from the same pages look suspicious to both users and search engines.
According to the Google SEO Starter Guide:
Format links so they are easy to spot. Make it easy for users to distinguish between plain text and anchor text in your links. Your content becomes less useful if users miss links or accidentally click on them.
That’s good advice. I remember reading several articles on the web, hovering over the content with my mouse and being taken to another website.
Most of the time, I didn’t know the text was a hyperlink because it looked like normal text.
Avoid:
Using CSS or text styling that makes links look like normal text.
Another point to consider is to be careful who you link to. You may confer some of your site’s reputation on another site when your site links to it.
If you don’t want to pass any value to the page you’re linking to, always make sure you use the nofollow attribute.
conclusion
Anchor text is an important part of any successful SEO strategy.
When used correctly, it can help improve both your website’s ranking and visibility. However, it is important to avoid over-optimizing your anchor text, as this can lead to penalties from Google.
Use keyword-rich anchors sparingly and make sure the rest of your anchor text is natural and informative.
Keep these tips in mind the next time you create anchors for your website to link internally and externally.
More resources:
Featured image: astel design/Shutterstock
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