WHAT IS ANCHOR TEXT?
Anchor text is the visible text that you can see in the link on a website. Readers click on the anchor text to get navigate from one online web page to the another web page. It is physically connects with two separate web pages. Anchor texts are usually highlighted and then colored differently from the rest of a text. The web-standard color for the underlined anchor text is in blue. However, through HTML code, you can also change the color and remove the underline of your anchor text in web page. Anchor text is the ranking element. It will improves the user experience on your site and gives the search engine a better idea about the relevancy of anchor text links. Keyword-rich SEO anchor text will be help you in optimizing your content for the On-Page SEO.
TYPES OF ANCHOR TEXTS
There is the lot of anchor text you can find online and some of them are not useful because they are spam and should be limited to keep the search engines from coming. Let’s cut down this list and specify the most useful types of the anchor texts for website SEO.
BRANDED ANCHOR TEXT
These anchors text will include your brand name. Anchors can also appear as a brand name with the keywords.
For example the ‘Internal Link Juicer’ will bring you to Internal Link Juicer’s website homepage.
PARTIAL MATCH
The partial match words or the phrase match anchor text includes a keyword for a specific page but without any localization. It will covers some words that make the keywords long.
For example the ‘Setting up your Link Counting” will be bring you to a page on setting up your link counting.
RANDOM ANCHOR TEXT
The random anchor text is unspecific or the generic phrase that does not include the target keyword. Some link analyses will suggest the random and generic anchors in the same category.
For example ‘This Article’ will be direct you to specific blog content.
EXACT MATCH LINK TEXT
It’s so far a most significant anchor type for your SEO ranking. It serves as the core keywords and the money keywords that the page is meant to target. It’s the usually boosted by the localization factor.
For example, your focus keyword is the ‘best practices internal linking’ then you can use this as anchor.
RELATED ANCHOR TEXT
The related anchor text links to the page that uses a variation of the target keywords. They are similar to the partial match keywords. However, the relevant keywords don’t include a precise keyword phrase. It is necessary to create the related anchor to help the Google crawler better figure out what links are all about. In addition, they keep your link profile distinct so that the Google won’t hit you for spam links followed by the Google algorithm.
For example, your focus keyword is the “automatic link building” then you can use the variations of this keyword like “must have plugins” then use this as your anchor text for blog or other website page.
GENERIC ANCHOR TEXT
The generic anchor doesn’t include any text accrediting the keyword. However, the reader must be entrust the surrounding copy for the context ideas about what’s on the other side of the link. Generic anchor text looks like spam, but it is powerful because it includes the straightforward CTA or attracts the direct attention to the link.
One example of this is ‘Click Here’ is common anchor or the “See More” is also a good example.
NAKED LINK TEXT.
The naked link text is just as it is pasted into copy from the browser bait and it is clickable. You can encounter this if someone will be add the references at bottom of their article and includes your link as a source.
BEST ANCHOR TEXT STRATEGIES
NATURAL FLOW
When you adding links, make sure that they will fit well with the rest of the text. Look at it like this. If you are struggling to create a link in a sentence, if the link probably doesn’t belong there. It’s better to put it in somewhere else, and avoid making your texts unnatural and also difficult to read. So, while links are the important for SEO, you should make sure that don’t get in the way of the message you want to convey.
RELEVANT TO CONTENT
A good practice for writing link texts is to matching the text of the link with the content of the page you are linking to it. When a reader sees the linked text in the webpage they should immediately know what to expect if they click on the link. Take the look at the text in the image below.
CONSIDER CONTEXT
Make sure that your anchor text is contextually relevant to the sentence as well as the destination page to the site. Although context is similar to relevancy and the intent, it’s will be unique enough to mention separately.
MAKE SURE LINK TEXT IS CLICKABLE
Make sure to the reader that the link text is clickable in the page. You can also do that by using a different color for the link, underline it, or do both.
KEEP ANCHOR TEXT SHORT
Keep anchor text short and descriptive. It’s better for the users and it is very easy to explain what the destination page is about. One exception might be if you link to an article using the title as the link text in the page.
USER READEABLE
Lastly, always keep in mind that the user experience while creating the anchor text. Make sure that the anchor text is useful and adds value to the reader, or if it’s just added for SEO purposes. Anchor text should be enhance the user experience.
