Anchor text is nothing new under the sun; I agree with that.
However, if we all know about it, how come I see many bloggers build links as if they have no idea what anchor text is?
With that in mind, plus the fact that my readers requested a post on anchor text that they can actually understand, I put together a collection of anchor text tips that will satisfy both the beginners and the more advanced link builders.
What Is Anchor Text?
Anchor text is the clickable words within a link.
It is often underlined and sometimes colored differently from the rest of the content – blue, most of the times.
For instance, http://www.TrafficGenerationCafe.com is just a link (also called hyperlink).
However, Traffic Generation Cafe is the same hyperlink as above (they both lead to the same destination – my home page) with Traffic Generation Cafe as anchor text.
Why Is Anchor Text Important?
Certain search engines, like Google for instance, use anchor text as an off-page factor in determining your site’s rankings.
The words contained within the anchor text will help your page to be ranked for the keywords you desire it to be ranked for, as opposed to what Google thinks you should be ranked for.
For instance, if I want to get my home page ranked for the term “Traffic Generation“, I need to find ways to create links from other websites that will contain my home page URL and my keyword “Traffic Generation” as anchor text.
The way you create links on other websites is via blog commenting, guest posting, becoming a top commentator, etc.
How to Properly Build a Link
In order for you to make use of anchor text links, you need to know some HTML basics, or at least, know how to copy and paste.
HTML Code for a Standard Link
What you see:
Click Here to get my free SEO Report
How the link was built:
<A HREF=”http://www.getfreeseoreport.com/”>Click Here</A> to get my free SEO Report
HTML Code for a Standard Link with Anchor Text
What you see:
Don’t forget to pick up my free SEO report!
How the link was built:
Don’t forget to pick up my <A HREF=”http://www.getfreeseoreport.com/”>free SEO report</A>!
HTML Code for a Standard Link with Anchor Text, which will open it in a new browser window.
What you see:
My free SEO report will teach you all you need to know about link building.
How the link was built:
My <A HREF=”http://www.getfreeseoreport.com/” TARGET=”_blank”>free SEO report</A> will teach you all you need to know about link building.
How to Choose the Right Anchor Text
Many bloggers continue to ignore this huge factor in any one way link building and then wonder why they don’t get much search engine traffic.
KEYWORD research.
You need to target keywords that are:
- relevant to your niche
- might be used by your potential readers to find you
- receive plenty of daily searches
- have monetary value – meaning, words that signal buyers and not just lookie-loos.
It might seem like a daunting task, I agree, but you just can’t skip this step.
Since this post is not about keyword research, I’ll tell you one more thing about it: all the best marketers/bloggers I know use Market Samurai for all their keyword research/rank tracking/competition spying needs.
And when you decide to check out Market Samurai via my affiliate link, you can get a cool 35% off (I am pretty sure the offer is still available as of today). Just sign up for the free trial and wait to get your coupon in the email.
What Is Natural Anchor Text?
All those PhDs at Google are no fools.
Many webmasters realized that shortly after all the penalties Google recently dished out that (may) have been caused by anchor text over-optimization.
What do I mean by that?
If you continue to build links with the same anchor text over and over again, it becomes a sure sign of SEO link building – something Google is not too fond of.
Solution: vary your anchor text, add a few useless words to it here and there; even use “Click Here” as your anchor text every once in a while.
That’s what is called “natural anchor text” – it looks like it was built by users and not SEOs.
7 Ideas to Vary Your Anchor Text
1. Use Your Company Name / Your Name
This one is self-explanatory.
2. Use naked URL more often
Especially, when it comes down to your home page.
A regular user will most likely link to your page with the URL and not anchor text of any kind – we need to duplicate this pattern as much as possible.
It’s been said that at least 50% of all the links going to your home page should be naked URL links (by “naked” I mean without any anchor text – in case you wondered).
You can also vary it by using
- http://www.TrafficGenerationCafe.com,
- TrafficGenerationCafe.com,
- or www.TrafficGenerationCafe.com.
3. Phrase Match
Stay away from the exact match and do a few phrase matches instead.
For instance, instead of using “weight loss” over and over again, come up with alternatives like how to lose weight, weight loss for teenagers, losing weight quickly, etc.
4. Stop Words
Vary your anchor text by adding some of the so-called stop words like the, is, at, which and on.
Also consider adding words and phrases like how to, want, buy, etc.
5. Synonyms and Antonyms
This is a great way to achieve natural anchor text.
Make use of tools like Thesaurus.com or Soovle.com.
6. “Click Here”
It doesn’t get any more natural than using “click here”, “read more”, etc. as anchor text.
7. Images
This is a great way to vary your link building efforts.
Host a few good images on your blog and insert them into your guest posts with a link back. It’s always good to remember to optimize those images with an ALT tag.
The idea for this portion of the post came from Kaila Strong’s post on SearchNewsCentral.
Anchor Text for the Advanced
If you know and use the anchor text basics I just described, you’ll be ahead of a lot of your competitors.
Wouldn’t it be nice if anchor text was as simple as that though?
No such luck.
Here are some recent anchor text resources to give you an even better understanding of how it works (or doesn’t) and what it might look like in the future.
Prediction: Anchor Text is Weakening…And May Be Replaced by Co-Occurrence- Whiteboard Friday - SEOMoz.org
What about anchor text in internal links?
Should you be just as careful about using exact match anchor text within your own blog?
Matt Cutts to the answer:
Anchor Text Marketing Takeaway
Using well-researched keywords as your anchor text and learning how to make your anchor text look natural just might be your ticket to better search engine rankings.
I suggest you give this one some serious thought!
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