What Is Anchor Text In SEO? How To Write The Best Anchor Text?
What Is Anchor Text: Anchor Text, also known as Link Title or Link Label, is the clickable text in a hyperlink. In most webpages, it can be seen as a blue, underlined text clicking on which takes you to another section of the same webpage or to a different webpage.
For example, this hyperlink – important blog elements – when clicked, directs you to the Blogsperia post on “elements of a blog”. This clickable text “important blog elements” which is linked to the blog post on elements of a blog is the anchor text for that particular hyperlink.
The choice of anchor texts helps in determining ranking of a particular web page in Search Engine Result Page (SERP) and hence, anchor texts should be wisely chosen instead of keeping any generic texts.
What Is Anchor Text: How Does Anchor Text Determine Google Ranking
Google identifies the relevancy of a blog post based on the anchor text used in the hyperlink.
For example, you write a blog post with the primary keyword “anchor text”. Now, every time you use “anchor text” or any other relevant text (like what is anchor text, how to write anchor text, what is the importance of anchor text, etc., in some other posts, you hyperlink them to the original post on anchor text. Likewise, other websites too hyperlink to that post you have written on anchor text every time they use a relevant text.
Now, Google identifies that this article you wrote with the targeted keyword “anchor text” has been linked from multiple web pages and the anchor texts that have been used for this purpose are related. So, it considers it to be a relevant article on anchor text, thereby, improving its rank.
SEO practice, thus, demands you use relevant text as anchor text. Using generic text doesn’t contribute towards improving the rank of the targeted web page.
What Are The Types Of Anchor Text
Anchor texts can be of the following types:
1. Exact Match Anchor Text
If the anchor text is same as the primary keyword of the page that it is linked to, then it’s Exact Match Anchor Text.
Example: An anchor text “Web Hosting” linking to a page about Web Hosting.
2. Partial Match Anchor Text
If the anchor text is not an exact match but a variation of or related to the primary keyword of the targeted page, it’s called Partial Match Anchor Text.
Example: An anchor text “Essential Blog Elements” linking to a page about “Elements of a Blog“.
3. Branded Anchor Text
When a brand name is used as the anchor text, it is called Branded Anchor Text.
Example: An anchor text “Blogsperia” linked to an article on Blogsperia.
4. Naked Link
When the URL of the targeted page is used directly as the anchor without providing any other text, it is called Naked Link.
Example: www.blogsperia.com
5. Generic Anchor Text
When a generic text that is not related to the targeted page is used as an anchor text, it is called Generic Anchor Text.
Example: “Click Here” is a commonly used Generic Anchor Text.
Tips To Write SEO Friendly Anchor Text
While writing anchor text, keep the following points in mind:
1. Think of the most concise and accurate text to describe the content of the webpage you want to link to.
2. Think from a readers’ perspective and choose an anchor text that would grab the attention of the readers.
3. Keep the anchor text relevant to the linked-to page.
4. Keep the keyword density less in the anchor text, which is to say, do not use too many keywords.
5. Do not keep it generic.
6. While giving interlinks, come up with variations of anchor texts to link to a particular page. Search Engines prefer it as it indicates clearly what a particular web page deals with. It also helps the search engine to identify the queries for which the targeted web page can be shown in the SERP.
What Happens Due To Over Use Of Exact Match Anchor Text
Excessive use of Exact Match Anchor Texts, that is, using the same anchor text as the targeted keyword, especially from multiple websites sends a spam trigger to Google. Google considers it as unnatural and forced (with an intention to improve ranking of the targeted page), thereby, dropping the rank.
Other Types Of Anchor Text To Manipulate Google Rankings
Since anchor texts helps in improving Google ranking, there are many ways to use it and manipulate Google rankings.
Backlink Anchor Text & One Way Anchor Text Backlinks
When Website A links to Website B, it is called building backlinks for Website B. The anchor text used for this purpose is called Backlink Anchor Text.
Building backlinks, especially with the right anchor texts, is a great way to improve rankings.
It is believed that if the backlinks are just one way, that is, Website A is linking to Website B but not the other way round, then it helps in better ranking as such backlinking is considered to be natural and not forced.
Note that Spammy Anchor Texts (anchor texts that’re not at all related to the targeted page) are to be avoided.
If you have any query regarding what is anchor text, drop a comment below and I will get back to you.