What is Anchor Text and Why is it Important for SEO

Posted by admin Jun 24, 2022

The marketers know how important link building is to boost the business rankings on search engines. Additionally, the number of links with the appropriate keywords in the anchor text affects the likelihood that a webpage will rank highly.

Even the way you link your site internally and externally plays a significant role. Here comes the need to understand the use of anchor texts. External links take the visitors to other websites. On the other hand, internal links connect one webpage to the resource of the same website. It could be anything like product pages, blogs, and more. 

Anchor text is a blue clickable text within a hyperlink that links one webpage to another. The reason is to improve the user’s reading and browsing experience. Additionally, the anchor text you use has a significant impact on SEO. For example, if you build links using the suitable keywords within these anchor texts, the chances of your website rankings for those specific keywords on the top will increase. 

Now, let us dive deeper into knowing what an anchor text is and its significance. Furthermore, we will cover the ways to optimize these for SEO. 

Overview of Anchor Text

The part of a link that is most visible to users and clickable is called the anchor text. It appears in blue standing out from the rest of the text and is underlined. The anchor text provides information about the link and encourages readers to click to know more. 

You can manually add the link with the HTML code. The initial tag <a href> and closing tag </a> are used for this.

For example,

<a href=”https://example.com”>This is an anchor text</a>

Simply put, the anchor texts serve as a signal to search engines and users about the web page you are connecting to.

Although the anchors connect the pages, it also makes it easy to download files, PDFs, and other data from storage. This is the reason why it is advised to click on the legitimate links only. 

Importance of Anchor Text

Anchor text is unquestionably a key component of SEO strategy. After all, it impacts both the on-page and off-page SEO efforts. Also, the user experience is a part of it. 

Internal Linking

Internal links utilize anchor text to help search engines assess the connection between the web pages within your website. The ability to control anchor texts through internal linking is the best feature. This implies that you can manually insert the text whenever you connect to a particular page. Thus, boosting the context, link relevancy, and authority of each web page in the process.

Backlinks

Remember backlinks are one of the most vital factors that affect website rankings. So, if you have the links built from high-quality domains, you will be able to establish authority and credibility. Thus, it will help your business rank well on the SERPs. 

Remember that anchors not only take the user from one page to another. It also conveys vital information like relevance, context, and purpose. As a result, it will support a high SERP ranking for your company.

User Experience

Every business prioritizes the user experience, which is why it is a component of every SEO campaign. This pattern will undoubtedly stay in place. Maintaining the relevance of the anchors is vital at this point. When creating links, it is also necessary to maintain authority and suitable keyword use. With the appropriate anchors, all of this is achievable, resulting in prioritizing a satisfying user experience.

Various Types of Anchor Text

Let us now walk you through the different types of anchor text that you must be aware of and get an understanding of keyword-rich anchors. 

• Phrase Match: Such a link title contains a specific phrase that you want your website to rank for. For example, it could be anything like dining sets for homeowners, decor ideas for offices, etc. 

• Exact Match: The specific term that the webpage aims to rank for is included in the anchors. It could be like office furniture, home furnishings,  etc. 

• Generic: The link title includes generic words like “read more”, “click here”, etc. 

• Branded: Its label includes the keyword with the specific website, business, or any product name.

• Naked URL: It is the direct link to the webpage or website’s URL. 

• Partial Match: As the anchor of the link, keyword variations are used. For example, a beginner’s guide to SEO. 

• Image Anchor Text: Images themselves act as anchors. However, the use of alt attribute and <img> tag is essential. 

Best Practices to Optimize Anchor Texts for SEO

Remember that there is no specific amount or percentage of generic, branded or exact matching anchors. Each industry varies in offerings and so do the keywords. Sometimes matching the ideal keywords can be challenging. On the other hand, in some cases, avoiding the use of keywords in sentences is simply impossible. Here, reviewing what the competitors are doing can help. 

Some best approaches include:

Keep the Anchor Text Unique and Understandable

Make sure to use the blue, clearly clickable anchor texts. The meaningful and clear anchors will make users know what content to expect upon clicking the link.

Avoid using generic anchors since they give search engines no information about the linked pages.

Consider Keyword Density

Keep in mind not to use too much similar anchor text in the site’s inbound links. It may seem like spam to Google. When using such texts, research and use those that are product, page, or topic-based. Make sure there aren’t any excessive internal links used. In addition, keep the insertion of anchor text in content natural. 

Create Backlinks From Reputable Websites

Having backlinks from reliable and trustworthy websites is essential. It suggests that people can trust you as the source. Additionally, your name and the information can be freely sourced by other top-notch websites.

You will need to create good-quality content and broadcast it on niche relevant sites. For instance, you sell makeup products. Firstly, you will research the keywords, create the content around the topic, and add the anchor links. Secondly, you will contact the most well-known bloggers and authoritative websites in your niche to obtain backlinks.

Keep an Eye on Your Image Alt Tags

You need to know the reason behind the significance of focusing on image alt tags. These are known to:

• serve as an anchor text
• describe an image to the Google bots

Keep the alt tags of images descriptive and natural. Avoid keyword stuffing as Google is smart. Simply integrate one focus keyword and describe the image in one sentence. 

Prioritize Page Relevance

The search engines have become even smarter. More metrics are now being used to calculate the rankings. Of all, the anchor link relevancy is prioritized. This will raise the rankings of both interlinked pages for the questions and answers relevant to user searches.

Some common ways that help assess the relevance include:

• The information in the source page’s anchor text
• Source page’s subject

Remember the search engines focus on different anchor text variations being used to link back to the original source. Furthermore, it helps determine which article is relevant to which search query. 

So, in simple terms, keep the anchors expressive to the target page to ensure the links imply credibility and relevance. 

Besides all this, you can use SEO tools like Semrush and more. These can better ensure you do not overlook any anchor text SEO efforts.

Anchor Text Practices to Avoid

• Don’t associate your brand or information with poor websites. Users won’t gain from it, and Google considers those websites to be spam.
• Avoid adding keywords or anchor text in excess into the content. This will negatively influence the user experience.
• Do not use a similar anchor a lot. Google’s algorithms will view it as spam. Instead, use naked or branded links. 
• Also, maintain anchor text diversification and avoid sticking to one type. 
• Avoid making the links generic as it will only degrade the link value. 

Bottom Line

To sum up, anchor text is vital for retaining the efficacy of SEO efforts on any business website. Anchor texts, which are among the best Google ranking elements, guide viewers to the additional information and resources available on the other side of a clickable link. Thus, increasing the reader’s trust. Also, following all these measures shared above can better help you optimize anchor texts for SEO. As a result, the rankings, traffic, and sales will be positively influenced. 

Make sure to employ the top SEO services and ask for help from experts. You can connect with the search engine optimization experts at Awebstar. They perform the best SEO strategies like content creation, on-page optimization, and more. Thus, assuring your business ranking on top of SERPs, boosting sales, and reaching a wider range of target audiences.