Ranking your site on search engines is not easy. Indeed, it was easy years back. But now, Google’s algorithms are advanced and strict when it comes to SEO. Ranking now depends on numerous factors meeting which you get a chance of ranking your site on top. With the introduction and update of many algorithms, Google’s ways of analyzing content have become much more advanced. This can make or break your content depending on how you project it.
It is important to note that all of these factors are equally important to the user and Google bots alike. One such factor is Anchor Text. Optimizing your content with proper anchor texts gives content that is relevant and useful to the user.
In this article
- What are Anchor Texts?
- Why is Anchor Text Important?
- Type of Anchor Text
- Best Practices for Anchor Text Optimization
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS)
- Wrapping Up
- Related Reads
What are Anchor Texts?
Anchor texts are the visible characters that display your hyperlinks in order to link them to another page or document. These anchor texts are usually highlighted in blue but can be customized using HTML or CSS codes.
Anchor texts provide the user and search engine bots with necessary information about what the content is about. They also serve as gateways to other articles or pages through which you get backlinks. Thus these serve multiple purposes and are very essential to SEO.
<a href=”http://linkdoctor.io”>LinkDoctor</a>
Above is a sample of a link in which the word LinkDoctor at the end is the Anchor Text.
Anchor texts play an important role in explaining your content. When a user reads your content, the anchor text that you use shows them the theme of the content and the links that you add to prove your authority. If misused, anchor texts can get you into trouble which we will discuss later.
Why is Anchor Text Important?
Anchor texts act as indicators and gateways in your content and hence are deemed very important for SEO. Based on the quality of your anchor texts, you further get quality links, which help Google determine that your site is specialized for something. In other words, it exhibits content relevance.
Years back, anchor texts were misused like any other SEO element. Anchor texts were used to send links with the keyword that you needed to rank for. This led to an increase in ranking. Such malpractices were possible because Google did not have enough policing methods to filter out such practices.
Then Penguin Algorithms came. This was a major milestone in the history of Google updates. Google began to understand the content better and the Penguin update was majorly focused on ironing out such malpractices. Content and keyword relevance was taken into consideration and sites that breached these were penalized or deindexed.
The Penguin Algorithm looks at the anchor texts in your content to determine whether you are practicing ethical methods, such as white-hat versus black-hat tactics. If your anchor text distribution seems out of place, you will be scrutinized and deindexed.
Type of Anchor Text
There are various types of anchor texts segregated based on their relevance to the content. They are,
- Exact Match
- Partial Match
- Branded
- Naked
- Generic
- Images
Best Practices for Anchor Text Optimization
Relevance
Relevance is key when it comes to content. Make sure to conduct extensive research while creating content. The same goes for anchor texts too. Anchor texts should be relevant to your content. They should not look odd while a user is reading the content.
Sometimes, you may have to place brand names and product names in an anchor text. This should be done with discretion and an understanding of the marketing funnel basics.
Competitor Analysis
When adding Anchor texts, make sure you distribute them evenly. Users look at the visible text to determine what your content is about. If your anchor texts are very different from what your competitors offer, your site might either be considered unique or irrelevant depending on the user’s state of mind.
Conducting a competitor analysis for anchor texts gives you a sure-fire method of attaining SEO success.
Make it Grammatically Correct
While adding anchor texts, make sure you find grammatically correct words to use as anchors. SEO-focused words may have inconsistent grammar and sentence formation. Anchor texts are hyperlinked parts of your content that users click to move to other pages. If your anchor text looks suspicious or incorrect, users might skip it.
The above statement might seem like a light one. But if users skip your anchor text, there is no way you are getting a conversion. Conversions depend on users completing a task on your page that you intended them to perform. In case your anchor texts do not live up to their expectations, your conversions will not happen and this leads to a low ranking of your site.
It can be surprising that a minor grammatical error can cause such an effect on SEO, but it holds true all the time.
Track Anchor Texts
It is very essential that you track your anchor texts on your site. This helps you understand the impact they have on your SEO. This can be done on a regular basis to keep track of your success. Consider this:
You can use this anchor text Categorizer Tool for starters. This helps you understand your anchor texts and utilize them to their full potential.
Anchor Text Density
Just like regular keywords, anchor text density matters in content too. While you cannot stuff anchor texts inside an article or post, it is essential that you make sure that they are distributed evenly inside the content.
Density matters to search engine optimization in which bots look at the number of times you have used the text to determine the type of your content.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS)
Is Anchor Text a ranking factor?
Yes, Google considers Anchor texts to be an important factor in SEO. This came about after the Penguin update.
What is Keyword-rich Anchor Text?
Keyword-rich anchor texts are the anchor texts that have actual keywords in them instead of words like “Click here” or similar.
What is SEO juice?
SEO juice is a term that refers to the authority that a backlink passes on to the page or site that it connects with.
Wrapping Up
Every element in SEO is important when it comes to ranking your site. No element small or big can be missed out since Google’s algorithms and ways of analyzing content are very dynamic and ever-changing given the current market scenario. Your SEO game should be strong to match all changes and still stand on top.
Anchor texts as mentioned, can either make or break your article. Make sure to keep relevancy as a standard checklist when creating anchors. After all, they are the literal anchors that keep your content grounded to your product or service. In case you need help with Content marketing and link-building services that include anchor text optimization and high-quality linking, we at LinkDoctor can help you.
