What is Anchor Text? Its Importance in SEO
You have encountered different terms and phrases for website SEO and its optimization. One of these terms is Anchor Text. Anchor text is an essential factor for website ranking. But if you misuse it, you should be prepared to lose your position in Google results pages. Given the importance of this factor in SEO principles, this article will examine critical issues such as what anchor text is, types of anchor text, their applications in website SEO, etc.
What is Anchor Text?
Words or phrases that are usually bolded or highlighted in another color, such as blue or orange, and when you click on them, you are directed to another page called anchor text. (Like this: What is PBN?) Using anchor text affects the words and thus improves the position of your article in Google’s rankings.
If we want to give a clear example of using anchor text, pay attention to the orange parts in this text. You will be directed to other related pages of the site by clicking on these phrases. Anchor texts help Google search engines get acquainted with your field of work and how you operate and to be able to recognize it more easily. On the other hand, anchor text helps search engines such as Yahoo, Google, Yandex, etc., reach a single result by showing sites in search results.
Amount of anchor text usage
Remember that there is no limit to optimizing anchor text and that any number can be used on different sites. However, in an article, you cannot use a word repeatedly to link, which applies to each word in content only once or rarely. For example, if you intend to link through the word (getting to know SEO), we suggest using it only once, and we do not recommend linking in other parts of the article with the same name and spelling.
As we mentioned, using anchor text is unlimited, but using it too much in articles will seriously damage your site’s SEO and result in the opposite.
Types of Anchor Text
There are different types of anchor texts. Because different texts can be used to connect to a specific address, as mentioned in the previous section, people may use a word or a sentence to become anchor text. Each anchor text has its strengths and weaknesses. The type you use for SEO optimization depends on where your link is located and its purpose. However, below, we will introduce the types of anchor text.
Generic Anchors
Generic anchors are known by titles such as “Click here” or “Suggested article.” In the past years, these anchor texts have been prevalent. Now, with the changes and new updates to Google’s algorithms, these anchor texts can hurt your site’s SEO if misused. Here are some examples of familiar anchor texts:
About the author
Check this link
More information
Continue reading
Click this link
Read more
Branded Anchors
Links that use a brand name in their text are called brand anchors. Using a brand name generally does not hurt SEO unless the brand name is the same as the keyword used and confuses the search engine. Moz and Best Buy sites use this type of anchor text the most and usually use their brand name for link building.
Naked Link Anchors
Naked Link Anchors, also known as URL Anchor Text. Naked anchor text does not have a specific keyword and only uses the site URL as the text. In this type of anchor text, content creators directly include their target page in the content and ask users to click on that link. For example, the link https://www.jannavita.com/blog/link-building-tutorial uses this type of anchor text.
Although no one knows exactly how search engines treat naked anchor text, it is said that this type of anchor text has less impact on SEO than other types.
Image Anchor Text
To make linking to Google look natural, we recommend using links in your site’s images. In these cases, the Alt Tag of the images is identified as anchor text. In addition, if the pictures with the link do not load, browsers display the alternate text of the images as an anchor text to users. With this in mind, if you use images, you should pay special attention to the anchor texts and write them carefully.
Exact Match Link Text
Exact Match anchor text is one of the most essential anchor texts. In this type of anchor text, only the target keyword is used in the link text. This type of anchor text significantly impacts your site’s SEO. However, excessive use can lead to a site penalty and have a negative impact on your site’s SEO. This is an unnatural activity that we can consider black hat SEO.
Partial Match
In Partial Match anchor text, your main keyword is used in a partial and short form and includes small changes. For example, if your keyword is “professional website design order” and you use it as “website design,” this anchor is the Partial Match anchor text.
Long tail anchor text
Long tail anchor text is similar to Partial Match anchor text in terms of definition, and the only difference between the two is the length of the word in question. For example, if the keyword of your destination page is “white hat SEO,” and you use the anchor text “white hat SEO and familiarity with its techniques,” this is the Long-tail anchor text.
LSI Anchor Text
Synonymous anchor texts or LSI Anchor texts are equivalent to keywords. In Google’s view, many words have the same meaning and can be used interchangeably. Using LSI anchor texts is a common and helpful way to optimize your site’s SEO. For example, “video editing tutorial” or “how to edit a movie” are examples of this type of anchor text.
How to write the best anchor texts
Since your site is supposed to create value for your audience, it is better to explain the central point clearly and concisely from the beginning. Do not use irrelevant and complex words for phrases and keywords; act very naturally.
The simpler and more expressive your anchor text is, the more attractive it will be to your audience. Simple anchor texts should encourage users to click on the link. In addition, the target page should be honest and related to the phrase the user clicks on.
SEO-Friendly anchor texts have the following characteristics.
Low keyword density
Words related to the target link
They are simple, specific, and expressive.
Are not vague or generic.
Since their inception, search engines have found many ways to determine the relevance of anchor text and target pages. If search engines determine that anchor text and target page are entirely related, the linking and receiving pages will have a high chance of reaching the top positions in Google. Suppose a clothing sales website has content on matching clothes by color, the best material for summer, and so on. In that case, it will have good conditions before users are redirected to irrelevant pages such as laptop sales.
Anchor Text Creation Mistakes
As we mentioned in the previous sections, the content of your links, what is mentioned in the anchor texts, and doing unprincipled work will be detrimental to your site. Do not do the following things at all while creating anchor text:
Using deceptive words such as (leaked photos)
Excessive use of different keywords in creating anchor text
Excessive use of anchor texts such as (check this link)
Manipulating HTML and CSS codes and changing the color or doing things such as removing the underline of anchor texts to deceive users
Final word
Search engines are updating their algorithms every day. Therefore, they pay more attention to site ranking factors than ever before. One of these critical factors is link building. Search engines look at a page’s topic in two ways: the content you have created on a page and the anchor texts created for that page.
If you do not optimize these two factors, it will be difficult for your site to appear on the first page of Google results. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that your site’s content is consistent with the text of the links.
Consistency of content with the links created creates a good user experience for your audience. In fact, when the audience clicks on the link “What is UTM?” They expect to encounter an article introducing UTM links and how to use them and not be directed to unrelated pages. If the user clicks on the link and encounters unrelated content, be sure he will leave your site in a fraction of a second.
Note that using diverse links makes Google recognize the natural structure of your site links and pay more attention to your site.