Anchor text is one of the main driving forces of SEO a a huge factor in our enterprise analysis report services. It can make or break your efforts to obtain search engine traffic.
Done incorrectly, and you’ll see zero traffic. If you correctly optimize your Anchor text and follow the rest of the steps in our free SEO training, you’ll see quite a lot of organic traffic to your website.
What is Anchor Text? How Does It Affect Search Engine Traffic?
Anchor text is quite simply the linking text that you see written within articles or on websites.
Here is a quick example:
Frankly, any linking text on a page is considered anchor text. For example, even the text in a menu is considered “anchor text.”
However within the context of SEO, most people are often trying to include keywords within anchor text to increase your search Engine rankings.
HTML Code – Include URL + Text
<a href="http://www.example.com">"example">ANCHOR TEXT GOES HERE</a>
For nerds like myself, it is simply the text that appears above. You’ll notice the first part is the URL
What Are Its Use Cases for Google SEO Optimization & Other Search Engines?
It can be used for backlinks as well as onpage SEO.
Why is it important for backlinks?
Most commonly, SEOs anchor a huge concern for backlinks. In April of 2012 Google rolled out its “Penguin” update.
A major part of this update was targeting websites with over optimized backlink anchor text.
For example, if you wanted to rank for the word “coffee bean“ back then it was common that 100% of the anchor text would contain the keyword “coffee bean”.
If you think about it, this is not natural, 10 of our 10 websites will not have the same linking text. When sites are naturally linked to other websites, there are some types of variations.
How should your approach your backlink anchor text:
Frankly, this is a very deep topic. We can make an entire course on the subject.
Here are a few tips:
- Analytics top ranking competitors. Try to mimic their anchor text ratios.
- Study sites outside of your niche, Highly competitive sites in English are good for study purposes. See how they apply and it overall.
- Don’t use the same keyword every single time, mix in variations. Again study sites in competitive niche.
How should your approach your internal (on-site) anchor text:
This is often overlooked. Generally speaking most SEOs are obsessed with backlinks and do not even consider that you can have major traffic gains from internal anchor text.
Internal anchor text is when you link your articles together within your website.
For example if your coffee bean article links internally to your article about espresso. That would be an internal link. Within your article about coffee bean you can talk about the best coffee beans for espresso and link to an article on your website about espresso.
Again, this is a very detailed and deep subject, but here are a few tips:
- You can be more aggressive with internal anchor text, generally speaking around 50% of your internal anchors can obtain the exact keyword. Use the other 50% to contain variations or other keywords that are related to the subject matter.
- Study high level sites in English to get an idea on how they approach it.
Anchor Text
For those wanting to do research, simply Google “anchor text” and quite a bit of information will come up.
Some Common Questions:
Is it important for a「blog」
Yes, it is important for any website. Blogs, ecommerce stores, anything that is on the web.
Is it Important for the 「menu」
Of course. It is one of the most valuable spots to select keywords in your linking text.
Final Thoughts and how it will effect your online marketing efforts.
Anchor text is super important for your SEO and organic traffic efforts. Do it right, and you’ll reap the benefits, do it wrong and your articles will never be found on Google and other search engines.
If you are on a budget, the best thing you can do is research sites in highly competitive niches. Also do not be afraid to implement your ideas. The beauty of working with websites is that you can always go back and correct past mistakes.
