The importance of anchor text with respect to a linking strategy cannot be overstated. Back-links are a huge part of the search engine algorithm. When initiating a linking campaign, it is vital that external sites link using the appropriate keywords and terms in the anchor text.
Anchor text is the clickable text in a hyperlink. SEO best practices dictate that anchor text be relevant to the page you’re linking to, rather than generic text. The blue, underlined anchor text is the most common as it is the web standard, although it is possible to change the color and underlining through html code. The keywords in anchor text are one of the many signals search engines use to determine the topic of a web page.
Almost always, linking candidates will use the company name as anchor text. This does not provide any type of description of the target company’s products or services. Sure, it may be great for branding purposes, but it isn’t usually needed. In most cases, companies already rank very high (if not first) for searches that incorporate their brand.
Here is an example using fictional company “Acme Plumbing Supplies”:
Most people will link simply using the terms “Acme”. This is alright, but it does not describe the company’s products or services, nor provide any context. By adding the word “plumbing” or term “plumbing supplies” (i.e. “Acme Plumbing” or “Acme Plumbing Supplies”), you may be able to drive additional traffic that may not have otherwise attained the corporate site.
Bad anchor text example: Click here!
Good anchor text examples: anchor text, anchor text definition, learn about anchor text
The anchor text is also known as the link label or link title. The words contained in the anchor text help determine the ranking that the page will receive by search engines such as Google or Yahoo and Bing. Links without anchor text commonly happen on the web and are called naked URLs, or URL anchor texts. Different browsers will display anchor text differently, and proper use of anchor text can help the page linked to rank for those keywords in search engines.
Exact Match Anchor Text
An exact match anchor text has the same keywords highlighted as the targeted keyword of a web page.
e.g. An exact match anchor text on this page would be the keyword “anchor text” hyperlinked to www.wagency.co/anchor-text like so: anchor text.
Anchor Text Variation
When websites aggressively build exact match anchor text links, a Google spam filter is triggered. It is unnatural for web pages that link to your website to all have exact match anchor text. A bit of anchor text variation is natural, just like how a great portion of the internet’s links are naked URLs.
Natural Anchor Text vs Unnatural Anchor Text
When web surfers link to your website, it is inevitable that you will get bad anchor text that does not help identify your web page’s topic. However, just like naked URLs, these are natural occurances, and are not frowned upon by search engines. On the flip side, the lack of naked URLs, the excessive use of anchor text, and or a high number of targeted one-way anchor text backlinks are all signs of unnatural anchor text distribution. Search engines like Google may penalize websites that focus on manipulating anchor text when user experience is compromised.
To obtain natural anchor text links to your website, create good content and the links and anchor text should come naturally.
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