Overview of Anchor Text
Anchor text is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink. When you come across a link on a website or blog, the clickable text is the link’s anchor text. Granted, you can attack links to images without text. Normally, however, links contain at least some text, — and this is known as anchor text.
The Importance of Using Anchor Text
For many years now, search engines have used anchor text as a ranking signal. Neither Google nor any other major search engines has revealed their precise algorithm for ranking websites. However, we know that search engines look at a basic factors to determine the keywords and locations for which a website ranks. One of these factors is anchor text.
The general idea is that anchor text should reflect the content of the linked web page. When someone builds a link to another website, they’re likely to use a relevant keyword or phrase pertaining to that site. This helps visitors understand what the linked page is about without having to actually click the link.
Anchor Text Best Practices to Follow
If you want to achieve a higher search ranking, there are a few rules you should follow when using anchor text, including the following:
- Use anchor text that’s relevant to your site’s content.
- Don’t use the same anchor text over and over. Diversifying your anchor text is essential to achieving a higher search ranking.
- In addition to keywords, also use variation’s of your site’s name as anchor text.
- Focus on creating a positive user experience (if you do this, higher search rankings will follow).
What You Shouldn’t Do
You should use caution when building backlinks containing anchor text, however. While anchor text in itself isn’t necessarily bad, it can have a negative impact on your site’s search rankings when used incorrectly. As explained here, Google views article marketing and guest blogging campaigns with keyword-rich anchor texts as link schemes. The Mountain View company also press releases with optimized anchor text links as a link scheme.
Ultimately, though, the worst thing you can do is overuse the same anchor text too frequently. Search engines typically target this as spam, at which point they’ll lower your site’s ranking.
