Anchor text optimization for SEO
Have you ever thought of going to a random address without knowing what will you find there? (Though there are few exceptions… I hope you are not one of them! )
Normally we need to have an idea about the place before actually going there.
Same applies to a web address. Before clicking on a link user must know where he will be taken to and what information he will find there.
Let’s understand this in detail:
What is Anchor Text?
Anchor text is the clickable and visible text in a hyperlink.
The link in Html looks like this:
The above link will appear in content as – SEO Services
You can use any word or a phrase as an anchor text but the optimal format of seo friendly anchor text is to use a relevant term with respect to the target page (the page to which it’s linked).
Let’s see some examples of good anchor texts and bad anchor texts.
As shown above, just by looking at the good anchor texts we can understand what information this link is offering. On the contrary, bad anchor texts don’t give clear idea of where the user will be redirected.
The connection between Anchor Text and Ranking:
Links are a crucial factor of ranking so technically anchor texts become the “ranking factor” too. Anchor texts of the links are used to understand the context of links.
Anchor texts make it easy for search engines to understand the relevancy of your website. They imply what your page is about, for which keyword it should rank.
I’m using “local SEO services” as an anchor text in this blog which redirects you to SEO page if the same or relevant keyword is used on another website that points to the same target page then it indicates Google that this page should potentially rank for “local SEO service”.
After all, what are the odds that many different web pages are linking to the same page with similar anchor text if that page has nothing to do with local SEO service?
Hopefully, you got my point. But the real question is – which type of anchor text should you use? Should you limit the length of the anchor text? How to optimize it for SEO?
Stay tuned, we will reveal every answer in detail.
How anchor texts could manipulate Google before 2012?
A few years back it was okay to use keyword-rich anchor texts for getting high rank for particular keywords. It was a simple game at a time when the competition is low and the text of the link is associated with the page easily. To rank a web page for keywords, you only have to point to multiple links with the target keyword as the anchor text.
But this led to the search result manipulation. And one of the famous examples is
George bush ranking at top of the results when “miserable failure” is searched.
Clearly, algorithm needs an update to avoid such manipulation.
So here comes the savior.
Google Penguin Update:
Penguin algorithm is specifically designed to check links quality. This algorithm checks backlink profiles and down-rank the sites with spammy or irrelevant links & links with overoptimized anchor texts.
Through this algorithm, anchor texts are examined to find out the relevancy of the link with the keywords & the targeted page. Penguin penalizes your website if your backlinks are built with over-optimized anchor texts. So you need to make sure that the anchor text serves the purpose.
To make it easy to optimize the anchor texts, let’s understand their types.
Types of Anchor Texts:
- Branded Anchor Text:
Branded anchors are anchors with the use of the brand names. It is a powerful type of anchor text that improves your brand recognition and visibility.
e.g. At IP Websoft, we offer a comprehensive range of digital marketing services that can help you boost your business growth online.
- Exact Match Anchor Text:
These types of anchors include exact keywords that reflect the page it is linked to. Exact match anchor texts can gain you a higher rank but it may also cause you a penalty.
e.g. At IP Websoft, we provide affordable SEO Services in India.
Here the target keyword is “SEO services” linking to a page about SEO services.
- Partial Match Anchor Text:
These are similar to using LSI keywords as anchor text. Variation of keywords in anchor texts is called partial match anchor text. It is a good practice to use partial match anchor text as it is a natural way to link to any site.
e.g. At IP Websoft, we provide affordable social media marketing packages.
Here the target keyword is “Social Media Marketing” but a variation of focused keywords is used naturally. This is a recommended way to have anchor text for your backlinks.
- Naked Link Anchors:
Naked link anchors are those where URL is used as an anchor.
e.g. To get more information, visit https://ipwebsoft.com
Here anchor text and link are the same. These types of anchors are defined as naked link anchors.
- Generic Anchor Text:
In this type of anchor text, general words or phrases are used as anchors.
e.g. Click Here to get more information about SEO Services.
You can see more example of generic anchor text in the previous images of bad anchor texts.
- Image Anchors:
Whenever we use Image which is linked to other web pages, the search engine considers alt text of the image as anchor text. So it is very important to optimize images by specifying relevant alt texts.
When you click on the above image, you will be redirected to the web page that describes web design services. Search engine will consider its alt attribute to determine its anchor text.
Pro Tip: Image ALT tags should be highly descriptive and should sound natural. Google can quickly catch keyword stuff alt tags, so keep your keywords’ minimum.
Choose one main keyword and incorporate it into a descriptive alt tag for a specific image.
How to Optimize Anchor Text for SEO?
Concise and attractive anchor texts:
Making use of concise descriptions to your web page is the best way to optimize your anchor text for SEO. Attractive anchor texts will motivate users to click on it. There is no specific length of the ideal anchor text but it should be as concise as possible.
Check out the tweet of Barry from Google
Pro Tip:
Select an anchor text that will motivate the user to click on it. Consider 2 important factors:
- What is the most accurate phrase that will describe the linked page?
- What word or phrase would encourage users to click on a link?
Use of SEMRUSH Keyword Magic Tool:
Grab the low-hanging fruit with the use of the SEMRUSH tool.
To get started visit SEMRUSH Domain Overview and enter the URL
You will get the organic research report where you can find the potential keywords related to your service also you can use the same to check the competitor’s keywords. See what their outgoing and incoming anchors look like so you can plan a perfect anchor text strategy.
To find more precise data head over to the keyword magic tool and enter your primary keyword.
You can sort the data according to many available filters such as “broad match”, “Phrase match”, “Exact Match” Also have a look at the questions “people also ask” about your service.
It’s a good practice to use these questions as anchor text.
Target Page Relevancy:
One of the vital metrics used for ranking is link relevancy. Anchor text should reflect the information on the linked page. The page on which the link is submitted should be relevant to the content on the targeted page. Consider the topic on the linked page and what information the page is offering and accordingly assign anchor text to your link.
For example The page that showcases the best furniture work is likely to pass a better relevance signal to Google when it links to an online furniture store than it is when it links to a site offering marketing service.
Make sure that your links send strong relevancy signals, by keeping your anchor text as descriptive as possible.
For example: Learn how to increase website traffic in simple steps.
Here anchor text is how to increase website traffic. This will redirect you to the following link:
Keyword Density:
If you are using so many exact same anchor texts for your backlinks then this will be considered as suspicious activity. Too many keyword-rich backlinks can harm your website rank because of the search engine penalty.
Using variations of keywords, LSI keywords in anchor text is recommended to rank for relevant keywords. Best practice to use keyword and topic-specific anchor texts whenever possible.
Now that you know what anchor text is and how it can affect your overall SEO performance, you should optimize them for better ranking results. But remember don’t overdo it otherwise penguin can downrank your site.
Digital Growth Booster of the Month:
Google’s BERT Update has improved how Google understands search queries & natural language text from the web.
Use a strategy of natural human language & the surrounding text.
Google not only considers the anchor text to find the relevancy it also checks the surrounding sentences and paragraphs.
On this note, please avoid using the same anchor throughout the content and while building links. Use variations of anchor text, for example:
- Partial Match Anchor Texts – 40%
- Branded Anchor Texts – 30%
- Generic, Naked Or Other – 20%
- Exact Match Anchor Texts – 10%
This is not a rock-solid strategy, you will have to try, test, and implement what works best for you. A variation strategy based on the above analysis is a good idea to send a positive signal to crawlers.
If you follow these optimization tips, your anchor text strategy will be strong enough to boost your SEO.
For more check out this Recommended article for more effective best SEO strategies to work on.
We would love to hear from you.
Do you have any other strategy to make it more effective? If you have any questions or suggestions then do share your views in the comments.
