Link texts, or anchor texts as they are popularly known, are the portion of text in your blog that is hyperlinked to another webpage, often known as the landing page. Thus, anchor text has a few distinguishing characteristics, like clickable; they have a color and format that distinguishes them from the rest of the text, giving context to the viewer. Also, anchor texts are closely related to SEO or Search Engine Optimization.
SEO is a term for all the practices that increase the organic traffic to a website. SEO mimics the modeling of algorithms that score and index websites on a search engine.
A few good practices when making a website are having expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T). Adding anchor text and link improves the trustworthiness of a website by linking the page to high-domain authority sites. Click here
Purpose Of Adding Anchor Text?
The purpose of adding an anchor text is primarily two-fold.
- It improves the ranking of a webpage by optimizing it. According to Backlink, 95% of people never go to the second page when searching online. In fact, between the first-ranking site and the twentieth-ranking site, the click rate falls by 93%.
- It improves the navigability of a page and enhances user experience. An appropriate anchor text gives a user the necessary context about the page he will land on.
Hence, paying heed to the anchor texts on a webpage makes business sense.
Adding Anchor Text In Your Content
There are multiple ways of using an anchor text, and here are some standard techniques to do so
- The Exact Keyword: Here, the anchor text is the exact word a webpage thinks will be searched for by a user. For instance, web analytics might show that “best hotels in Morocco” is the most used searchable term. So if a related blog uses the exact text “best hotels in Morocco,” it is an identical keyword.
- Matching a part or phrase of the keyword: A part of the desired keyword is used as anchor text. Taking the same example above, “hotels in Morocco” is a phrase match.
- A generic word like “go to” or “visit now” can also be used as anchor text.
- Using just the link in HTTP format as the anchor text.
- Using an image or a graphic as the link text.
Examples Of Adding Anchor Text
However, merely adding anchor text will not ensure that a webpage ranks high in a search engine’s indexing, so here are some good practices for writing better anchor texts. An example of a good anchor link for a landing page that leads to Belgian chocolates would be: If you want to get hold of the best Belgian waffle in town, visit the Waffle Maker’s Hub. Here is the best Belgian waffle being the keywords.
- Go With The Flow Of The Content
The anchor should only pop out suddenly when the reader sees it coming. An out-of-context phrase looks unappealing, and it might trigger a spam alert where the search engine might penalize a web page for keyword stuffing or trying to spam the index.
For instance, if a blog is about higher education and has to link a site that sells boats, then the writer needs to build up a link between education and boats. The writer may link boating with physical education.
- Do Not Mislead The Reader
The anchor text should give a context or background as to what is coming up, so a writer should refrain from writing about Belgian chocolates when the landing page is about automobiles.
- Be Concise And Succinct
In today’s world of information overload, nothing is worse than a piece of content that bores or perplexes the reader. The anchor text should be clear as to what it means.
Common Mistakes To Avoid While Adding Anchor Text
Anchor texts are vital for improving the visibility of a website and driving necessary traffic to it, so here are some common anchor text mistakes to avoid:
- Not Making The Link Text Distinguishable
Some people may remove the underline or make the link text the same color as the rest of the content for aesthetic purposes. However, this is a bad practice as algorithms precede color contrasts and help visually challenged readers navigate better.
- Forceful Addition Of Keywords In Link Text
It is more important that the link text is natural as algorithms punish for forceful additions, which it sees as spam.
- Being Repetitive In Choosing A Link Text Type
It is always optional to use the exact keyword; likewise, it is not a good practice to always go for generics just because they are easy to incorporate. Most SEO experts suggest that a mix of 5% exact phrases and 20% partial phrasal matches work best. However, it is a good practice to analyze which combination gives the best driving traffic results.
Conclusion
Anchor or link texts are thus a vital component of improving a website’s ability to rank higher in a search engine. Hence, if a writer follows the golden mandate of being contextually relevant, succinct, and not misleading his reader, the web page will get good traffic.
However, search engines keep changing their criteria for ranking pages, and it is a good idea to stay abreast of the latest changes in the field of SEO-based writing. So hire professionals for adding anchor texts and SEO optimization to improve the user experience of your website.
You can also read: How To Write A Content Brief
FAQs
- Is it a bad idea to write a generic anchor text?
Many people prefer using generic anchor texts like “click here” or “find more” because they are quite easy to incorporate in a piece of text. However, using such anchor links should be your last option. Google, which is a major search engine, explicitly states that it is better to avoid such generic words while writing content for the web. So you should use generic words as links as sparingly as possible.
- Can The Good Practices For Writing Anchor Texts Change Over Time?
The good practices for writing link texts change over time because search engines change their algorithms from time to time. So you have to keep yourself updated about the latest good practices in writing link texts from time to time.
- How Do Search Engines Penalize For Keyword Stuffing In Web Content?
There is no standard pattern in which a search engine might penalize a page for keyword stuffing. IT is always prudent to avoid such practices because in some cases the search engine has removed the pages altogether if it suspects malpractices like keyword stuffing.
- What Are SEO Tools And How Can They Help With Anchor Texts?
SEO tools are software that help improve the SEO of a piece of written content. They help by finding appropriate keywords, they give information on possible high domain authority sites to link to etc. Apart from these they also analyze SEO competition on the internet.
- What Are The Names Of Some Good SEO Tools?
The names of some popular SEO tools are SemRush, Answer the public, SpyFU, Google SEO Console etc. You can use any of the above tools and the best part is that most of these tools are free for use.
