Anchor text is a fundamental element of SEO that plays a crucial role in linking strategies and user experience. It is also one of the critical components to perceive site usability.
In general terms, anchor text is defined as the written text used in the hyperlink; this text is typically colored in another shade and underlined.
This seemingly simple feature is one of the most essential tools in the universe of digital marketing, as it helps to lead the user to the desired content and contributes to the understanding of search engines of the relevance of linked pages.
Information about anchor text and its significance is crucial for all those interested in improving the website’s rank in the results list. Relevant and proper link texts will help improve the site’s SEO result and enhance the experience of those who visit that site and the traffic generated by the content.
What is Anchor Text?
Anchor text is the word or phrase displayed to the user when using a hyperlink on a page. This is very important because it describes the linked page by giving users an estimate of what they will likely find when they login to the linked page.
For example, in the link “Learn more about our free website audit,” the keyword used could be ‘Learn more’ For instance, in the link Learn more about our services, the anchor text ought to tell the users and search spide what the linked page is all about.
Here is an example: https://thebullzeye.com/free-website-audit/
Why Is Anchor Text Important To SEO?
The anchor text plays a significant role in SEO mainly because it gives the search engines and the visitors an idea of what to expect on the linked page. If you have links on your site, then when the search engines are crawling your site, they use this anchor text to identify the relevance and the subject matter of the linked web page.
It assists the search engine in determining how to rank your sites in the search results.
Properly optimized anchor text can:
Improve Relevance:
Search engines also use the anchor text to attempt to determine the relevance of the linked page to the keyword or phrase used in the anchor text.
Enhance Authority:
It also helps establish your site as authoritative by sending search engines the message that your content is useful and/or relevant to their users.
Boost User Experience:
Appropriate descriptions in the anchor text help users understand the content of the linked page, improving their experience.
Types of Anchor Text
Exact Match
Exact match anchor text is an anchor text where the phrase used is the same keyword/aspect that you want to rank in the search engine. For example, if your keyword is ‘Paid Advertising,’ then your backlinks’ anchor text will be ‘Paid Advertising’
This anchor text is helpful because it informs search engines what the linked page is about, possibly increasing your relevance for the keyword. But great care has to be taken to apply exact match anchor text because this could easily fall into the overused category.
It can follow over-optimization and lead to penalties from the search engines, as they could see it as an attempt to manipulate the rankings.
Partial Match
Partial match anchor text is the one in which other words accompany the target keyword. For instance, if the target keyword is ‘On page SEO,’ the partial match anchor text could be ‘On page SEO for Digital Success.’ This way, your keyword remains relevant, yet the anchor text seems cohesive and coherent.
Partial match anchor text is considered safer than matching text because the latter may lead to over-optimization of the website. Such an approach allows adding keywords more effectively and diversely, increasing the text’s readability and relevance without compromising the signal to the search engines.
Branded
Branded anchor text has your brand’s name as the actual text that a user can highlight with their cursor. For instance, the anchor text is ‘Bullzeye Media Marketing,’ which creates awareness of the company and trust among the users. This anchor text helps raise the brand’s authority and recognition level.
When you connect your brand name, you also establish your brand’s relevance to others online and in search engines, particularly informing them that your brand is reliable enough to be ranked. Branded anchor text is another safe and efficient kind, especially when the linking strategy is diverse and consists of several sorts of anchor text.
Naked Link
The naked link anchor text is when the URL forms the clickable text. Thus, the anchor text of the second link is “//www. bullzeyemedia.com” because it is a naked link. This type of link can be relevant when transparency and simplicity are required, and the link leads the user directly to a specific website page.
To understand more, here are some direct naked links shown on the contact page of MIT university that navigates directly to compose mail for the address given.
Naked links can be described as simple links that take a user to another page without any further information when clicked. However, this option only indicates little, if any, information about the linked page’s content to the search engines present in the browser.
Hence, the naked links should be avoided and combined with other more descriptive anchor text varieties.
Generic
Generic anchor text is a plain and non-philosophical term such as “click here” or “read more.” An example of the usage is “Click here to learn more.” The usage of generic anchor text is recommended when using destination, which is not a guide to the users where the main focus is not held on the exact link that is clicked, for example, in a supplementary information link.
However, linking text is relatively non-descriptive regarding the context, which does not give much assistance to the users and provides no SEO advantage when the text is generic. Though applicable at times, their usage should be restricted. Instead, more accurate and descriptive anchor texts should be used to improve user experience and the website ranking for specific keywords.
Other Terms Associated with LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing)
The anchor text LSI includes keywords related to your target main keyword. For instance, if your target keyword is “Google Ads don’t perform well,” an LSI anchor could be “Google Ads Are Not Converting.” This helps to achieve variation to the anchor text to combat over-optimization. It also lets you capture miss-typed keywords and other keyword-related searches that add to your SEO.
This tells a search engine about the context of the linked pages and their topic in a broader manner, which often increases your site’s relevancy and importance for such connected terms.
Image Anchor
It involves using an image as the link; the anchor is the alt text used when the image is hovered on. This type is beneficial for linking to audacious or graphical content and aids the user experience by giving them a tool.
For example, an anchor whose link is a product image can link to a product page and generate good results. Whatever format of images used as the anchor links, it is always wise to ensure that the image contains a descriptive alt text. The alt text gives information to the search engines and makes the information available to users with visual impairment using screen reader devices. This anchor text is beneficial when images are actively used in the website or blog.
Long-tail Keywords
Long-tail keyword anchor text uses long and string phrases instead of shorter phrases. Thus, phrases like “best digital marketing services for small businesses” will assist in reaching a narrow target and looking for definite queries. Still, long-tail keywords are indeed effective in the marketing strategy because they are commonly associated with lower competition and high conversion rates.
Long-tail keyword anchor text is a variation to your linking strategy. It offers more detailed information to the search engine, which may optimally place your site within the search results of specific high-intent keywords.
Zero Anchor Text
Zero anchor text links are links without actual text but buttons or icons, for instance. These links are often used for navigation or call-to-action, which entails using a label instead of a description.
For example, this “Get Free Report”, “Call Now”, “Email Us” buttons that lead users to a product page or section is an example of zero anchor text. Though such links help control the actions of a user on a linked site, little hint is given to the search engines about the content on that linked site.
Just as it is not right to overcrowd your site with commercial anchor text links, it is also essential to keep your site manageable with Zero anchor text links while, at the same time, using the informative describing anchor texts all over the website.
To maximize the benefits of anchor text for SEO, follow these best practices:
Relevance: Make sure that the anchor text links to the relevant page. When the anchor text is used and chosen randomly, it becomes irrelevant to the context of web pages, misleading search engines and users.
Diversity: When linking, it is wise to use all the types of anchor texts so that the page looks manageable. Abusing a single one, most notably the exact match, will prompt a warning from a search engine.
Descriptive: Use the anchor text minimally, and if you have to, make it as descriptive as possible. It should briefly describe what users are likely to find on the linked page.
Avoid Keyword Stuffing: Avoid keyword stuffing by using the same keyword as your anchor text. This may be considered spam, and it is bad for SEO, especially if it is done frequently.
Use Natural Language: Use words closest in meaning to the relevant terms while creating the anchor text so that it melds with the content seamlessly. Although anchor text can benefit SEO, forced or unnatural text distracts readers and looks spammy.
Context: Insert your anchor text into the appropriate and useful content of the website. The context of the link must be supplemented by the surrounding text.
Limit Generic Text: It is also essential to keep your links manageable. While using click here does sometimes make sense, it has no related SEO value and little value to the user.
Alt Text for Images: Text that describes the content of an image used as the anchor link must always be provided. This aids search engines in identifying the nature of the link and makes it more friendly to users.
Methods to Identify and Remediate Anchor Text Problems
It is essential not only to monitor your anchor text from time to time but also to audit it to ensure there are no behaviors discouraging good SEO. Here’s how you can find and address these issues:
Use SEO Tools: Some of the essentials to check regarding the distribution of the anchor text include Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz. They are rather useful in predicting which types of anchor text is being used most, and its effects on your SEO.
Check for Over-Optimization: Ensure you’re using fewer exact-match keywords. Over-optimization has consequences, such as the demotion of sites on search engines.
Update Old Content: Update previously used anchor text to present-day recommendations. This includes proper and relevant use of the anchor text.
Monitor Backlinks: Make sure that the other sites where you have link connections to the content follow proper anchor texts. If you see that some webmasters use irrelevant or spamming anchor text, it is better to contact them.
Ask Out of the Box: FAQs
For the record, it is recommended that the anchor text be reviewed and modified frequently, especially every time an organ becomes truncated, or whenever an overhaul of the content layout and/or the SEO framework is undertaken. You should update your anchor text occasionally to guarantee the best results for yourself.
In principle, it is allowed to have several links on the same page with the same anchor text; however, it is optimal to avoid this and use different anchor texts to retain the site’s readability. Diverse anchor text allows search engines to better understand the links’ different contexts.
Excessive use of the exact generic words for the anchor text is a loss to the SEO of the used links and can need to be clarified for the search engines on the content of the linked content.
Conclusion
Anchor text is part of search engine optimization strategies; it helps define how search engines treat your content. Therefore, depending on the type of anchor text and following several tips, a user can improve the SEO ranking of his website and increase its convenience. Such audits and updates will help keep your anchor text up to date, comprise relevant and strong link-building traffic, and rank on search engines.
When optimizing a website for search engines, every detail is considered, including the anchor text optimization at Bullzeye Media Marketing. Call us today to speak with one of our digital marketing specialists and get a quote on our services.
