Those who have experience with SEO will understand what an anchor text is and its role in an article. When it comes to beating a search engine’s complex algorithm, it’s never as easy as it sounds.

However, with a proper anchor text, overcoming the algorithm becomes a lot easier. This article will cover the basics of anchor text and how exactly you can optimize it to produce the best results.

What is anchor text and why is it important?

There may be times that you’ve noticed a piece of text in a hyperlink in an article that stands out from the rest. That is the anchor text. It’s a clickable text that’s generally in the color blue and sends you to another webpage.

Think of the internet as a highway, and the anchor texts as signs for exits.

Anchor texts are able to send signals to both the search engines and the users of the website. When they are used correctly, they can move you to a different “alone” by letting you collect valuable and credible information from a different website.

With an anchor text, it’ll also be easier for Google to determine what your website is about and place you at the top of the search engine results.

Types of anchor text

There are eight types of anchor text that are commonly used:

  • Branded

This refers to using a branded name as an anchor text, and not having any unnecessary words. This type of anchor text works better after citing a source and linking or selling directly to the website.

  • Exact Match

Exact Match anchor text, as the name suggests, includes an exact match keyword of what the page being linked is targeting. For instance, when you want to link a page that talks about pet supplies then you can use the anchor text ‘pet supplies.’

However, keep in mind that overdoing it may be seen as a red flag by Google.

  • Related Keywords

This type of anchor text is similar to another type of anchor text. However, it does not include the actual keyword in the text. Instead, it uses those that aren’t exactly the same. For instance, ‘dog treats and toys’ can be brought back to the topic of school supplies.

  • Naked Link

Naked link is when the actual URL of the rink is one that’s being used as anchor text. Most of the time, you’ll see them at the bottom of every article as a promise. Keep in mind that naked links can look messy and confuse the readers so it’s essential to always be prepared.

  • Generic

With this type of anchor text, keywords or any reference points are mainly used to get the message across. This includes words such as “Click here to find out more,” “View more to see the details.”

  • Images

When you use an image as a link, it automatically uses Alt text as an anchor text. This way, if the image takes too long to load, you can simply click on the image.

How to optimize your anchor text

Now that you’ve familiarized yourself with the anchor text, it’s time to figure out how to exactly use and optimize them in a way that attracts more audience. Here are a few tips that can help you.

Don’t overstuff keywords

It’s never a good idea to stuff too many keywords in your internal anchor text. Make sure it’s simple, and concise and still flows naturally throughout the article.

Link to resources that relevant

When it comes to internal links, the context and relevance of the link matter a lot. You don’t want your users to click on a link expecting something related to the article yet getting something completely different instead. Search engines care a lot about user experience and engagement so linking to irrelevant sites is never a good idea.

Take advantage of the description of the keyword link

The keyword link description is a little bubble that pops up every time the cursor hovers over a link. This gives the user a hint at the webpage they will be redirected to. Take advantage of these descriptions to enhance user experience and SEO.

Use a variety of keywords

It’s advisable to combine single keywords and longer keyphrases when creating your anchor text. It may seem suspicious to Google if too many links in your work have similar anchor texts. Not to mention, using keyword variety boosts your page and is a good indication of relevancy across different phrases and keywords.

Avoid linking to everything

It can be annoying to users when there are multiple links in a single sentence. Don’t overdo it. If you do, there’s a good chance your page might be treated as a spam site by both the users and the search engines.

Bottom line

Having internal anchor text links is good for your page. Not only does it enhance user experience but it also offers SEO benefits to your content. However, avoid adding too much. Otherwise, you’ll be turning away both users and search engines.