What is anchor text?<\/h2>\n
Anchor text is the part of the link that is clickable and visible to users. It is placed between the opening <a href><\/strong> and closing anchor tag <\/a>. <\/strong>Here is an example of an anchor text:<\/p>\n Here is another example of anchor text in Google Search results.<\/p>\n Google is using the pagetitle<\/em> value as the anchor text for their search snippets.<\/p>\n What does the anchor text do?<\/strong><\/p>\n The anchor text gives a strong indication to both search engines and users about the page you\u2019re linking to.<\/p>\n A hyperlink that you add to your site can either point to other pages on your site (that\u2019s an internal link) or to pages on other websites (that\u2019s an external link).<\/p>\n In both cases, by providing for a meaningful anchor text, you help search engine crawlers and users understand what the target page is all about.<\/p>\n Here is another example of an anchor text used for an internal link. By looking at the value \u201con-page SEO\u201d, you know that if you click the link, you will read more about the topic.<\/p>\n There are different types of anchor text you can use when creating a hyperlink.<\/p>\n If you are new to SEO, you first need to understand the terminology so that you can follow the guidelines outlined below.<\/p>\n Although anchor texts have been around since the beginning of the Internet, still a lot of webmasters don\u2019t follow best practices when writing them.<\/p>\n Writing optimized anchor text for both your internal and external links can help your SEO in a number of ways.<\/p>\n Try to use meaningful anchor text in your links. A meaningful anchor text in this case, gives an idea of what to expect to find in terms of content, when clicking the link.<\/p>\n When choosing an anchor text:<\/p>\n In many cases webmasters may use the URL of a page (also known as Naked URL) as the anchor text.<\/p>\n Although it will not create any problems, it\u2019s not the best practice, so use it when really necessary. A better alternative is to use the page title<\/em> as the anchor text.<\/p>\n Write short anchor text that is concise and without too many words. If it has a lot of words, it\u2019s more difficult for search engines to understand it.<\/p>\n Example of a good anchor text:<\/p>\n Example of a ‘bad’ anchor text:<\/p>\n Links should be easy for users to spot. Best practices include making the link color different than the text color.<\/p>\n See in this article how easy is to differentiate my links from the rest of the text.<\/p>\n One of the reasons that anchor text is important for SEO has to do with links. Here is a simple explanation of how these two are related.<\/p>\n Incoming links are still one of the most critical search engine ranking factors<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n Links pointing from one website to another are considered by search engine algorithms as \u2018votes of trust\u2019. A website with links from other websites is likely to rank higher in the SERPS than a website with no backlinks.<\/p>\n The process of promoting your website to get more backlinks is called off-page SEO<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n One of the factors that play a role on how valuable a link is, is the anchor text.<\/p>\n The reason is that the anchor of an incoming link, gives search engines a big clue as to which keywords the particular page should rank.<\/p>\n Recommended Reading: What are backlinks<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Let me give you an example to understand this better:<\/p>\n Website A links to Website B as follows:<\/p>\n When search engine crawlers find this link, they understand two things:<\/p>\n So far so good. Everything was done according to the guidelines (as explained above).<\/p>\n The problems begin when:<\/p>\n When Google finds out that the link was not placed naturally it will impose a penalty on both websites or devalue and ignore the links.<\/p>\n Recommended Reading: How do I know if Google Penalized my site<\/a><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Here is the exact quote from Google guidelines related to anchor text over optimization:<\/p>\n In the SEO World, the algorithm that particularly targeted optimized anchor text is known as Penguin<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re confused by now as to whether you should optimize your anchor text or not, don\u2019t worry you are not alone.<\/p>\n Here is what you should do.<\/p>\n When linking out, follow these three simple rules:<\/strong><\/p>\n #1. Link out to websites that you trust. If you don\u2019t trust a website make the links nofollow<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n This will instruct search engines not to pass any link juice or pagerank from your website to the linked website. When a link has the nofollow attribute, the anchor text is ignored as well.<\/p>\n #2. Avoid using exact match keywords<\/em><\/strong> as the anchor text but still keep it short and relevant.<\/p>\n For example instead of doing this #3. You can link to website using their brand name. For example, if you would like to link to this article without using keywords, you could say \u201cAccording to Reliablesoft<\/u>\u2026.\u201d. (Reliablesoft in the anchor text for the link). This is always a safe practice to follow.<\/p>\n When building incoming links for your website:<\/strong><\/p>\n When running link building campaigns and you\u2019re in position to control the anchor text used for the links, follow the guidelines below:<\/p>\n #1. Use a variety of anchor text types \u2013 Don\u2019t use exact match keywords but use a variety of anchor text types. You can use partial match, page title, brand name and still give Google the right signals.<\/p>\n #2. Review your link profile \u2013 A \u2018normal\u2019 link profile should have all types of anchor text in the incoming links. Review your link profile and make sure that it looks natural. A profile with only exact match keywords <\/em>is not the normal.<\/p>\n #3. Avoid building low quality links \u2013 Anchor text is just one of the factors that determine how valuable a link is. Other factors include the website that is placed, authority of the domain and relevancy of the content. Don\u2019t go out and start building any kind of links but concentrate on the links that matter, without worrying too much about getting exact match<\/em> links.<\/p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/example.com\">This is an anchor text<\/strong><\/a><\/code><\/p>\n![\"Anchor](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/anchor-text-google-results.png\")
![\"Anchor](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/anchor-text-example.png\")
Different Types of Anchor Text<\/h2>\n
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Best SEO Practices for Anchor text<\/h2>\n
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Choose meaningful text<\/h3>\n
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Avoid using the URL of a page as the anchor text<\/h3>\n
Write short anchor text<\/h3>\n
<a href=\"https:\/\/example.com\">What is anchor text<\/strong><\/a><\/code><\/p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/example.com\">Anchor text is defined as the link that is clickable<\/strong><\/a><\/code><\/p>\nFormat links differently from normal text<\/h3>\n
Anchor text and Google Penalties<\/h2>\n
<a href=https:\/\/www.websiteB.com\/courses >SEO Courses<\/a><\/code><\/p>\n\n
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![\"Anchor](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/optimized-anchor-text-google.png\")
How to avoid anchor text over optimization<\/h3>\n
<a href=\"example.com\">SEO Strategy<\/a> <\/code> do this <a href=\"example.com\">follow this SEO strategy<\/a><\/code><\/p>\n