An Anchor text is a text which can be clicked and which contains a hyperlink. These are links that provide a bit of additional context through their text. The anchor text is should be concise and must contain text which is relevant to the target page.
To understand an Anchor text, consider this sample statement, “this is how an Anchor text works, once you click on it”; this underlined section, in practice, would contain a hyperlink to some other page that would explain all about the workings of an Anchor Text.
There may be various types of Anchor texts, they are:
- Exact match: if the Anchor text contains the keywords which exactly match the page that is being linked to. Example, ‘href tag’ linking to a page that tells about a href tag.
- Phrase match: the anchor text contains the keyword phrase for which one wants to rank the page. Example, ‘a hypertext reference page’ linking a page that tells about a hypertext reference.
- Branded: if the Anchor text uses a brand name and links to the website of that brand. Example, ‘Microsoft’ as an Anchor text linking to the site of Microsoft.
- Partial match: the anchor text has all the words in the query but doesn’t match the exact phrase being searched for.
- Naked URL: the link text simply displays the URL address and upon clicking that text, the user is directed to the website or webpage mentioned in the URL.
- Random: if the link text is general or unspecified and doesn’t contain the desired target keyword. For instance Anchor texts such as, ‘click here’ or ‘this website’ etc.
Anchor text’s impact on SEO.
Anchor text increases accessibility and anything which increases accessibility is considered good for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Search Engines use external anchor texts (text which other pages use to link to a particular site) as a reflection of how other people view our page.
And if a lot of sites think that a page is valuable or relevant under a given context, then that page could rank well. This means that the page gains natural links and hence the quality rating of the page increases thereby increasing its traffic and possible conversions in the long run.
Search Engines use such texts as a signal for determining the relevance of a linked page to search queries. Over the years algorithms have become smarter, so they look for the relevance and unnatural links in such anchor texts.
If spam tactics, link-buyback, or other manipulative methods have been used, then it may invoke a penalty. Such a penalty reduces the rankings of a page in Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). There is also a chance that over-optimized anchor texts and [over optimized] on-page SEO can cause the site to be hit by an algorithmic penalty.
We don’t have control over how other websites use their anchor texts to link back to our own content. However, we have control over how to best use the anchor text on our own website.
Therefore, due to the aforementioned reasons, Anchor texts become all the more important for a website’s traffic and SERP rankings; and this is one of the areas that SEO concerns itself with.
How should we get SEO friendly Anchor Text?
An SEO-friendly link text is crisp, relevant to the page to which it links, has a low keyword density, and to specific to the most possible extent. However, depending on the need, anchor texts of different kinds could be used.
Crisp link Text
No prescription has been given for the specific length of an anchor text. But it is advisable to keep our anchor text as much succinct we can. While writing a link text we can ask questions such as Is it the concise, specific, and accurate way to describe the page we are linking to? Are the words or phrases good enough to persuade users to click on the link?
Target page relevance
Over the years search engines have started giving importance to link relevancy, i.e. how much related is topic from page A to page B. A highly relevant link boost prospects for both pages when ranked for queries related to their topics. Link relevancy increases when the topics are relatable and fit in the context of the anchor text.
The difference in anchor text variations that are being used to link back to the original article is also paid attention to by search engines. These variations are used as an additional indicator of the content and relevancy with respect to search queries. In order to ensure that our links send strong relevancy signals, link text has to be kept as descriptive of the target as possible.
Keyword density in Anchor text
Google looks closely at keywords in anchor texts. If too many inbound links to a site contain the same anchor text, it may appear that the links are unnatural. This suspicious situation may cause Google’s algorithm Penguin to even penalize a page.
An internal link is a link that points to the content within the same page or some other page of the same website. So, even if too many internal links to a page use the same anchor text, Google might see it as spammy behavior. If possible, these needs be avoided.
As a best practice, wherever possible (for internal as well as external links), use keyword and topic-specific anchor text. It is also advisable to use a variety of natural link text phrases as compared to repeating the same set of keywords at every place. Repetition causes monotony to the visitor and appears suspicious to a web search engine.
Avoid spammy Link Text
A link text is a link that has no relation to the page on which exists or the page which it is pointing to, i.e. it appears totally irrelevant and odd. Such anchor texts are considered blackhat SEO techniques as they are used to overwhelm a competitor by negative SEO or by competing for highly searched keywords.
Such tactics can get a website to be penalized or be banned from a Search Engine’s result. Therefore, these unethical or unjustified means are to be avoided.
