What is anchor text? Everything you need to know about Anchor Text

Anchor Text is a term that is no longer unfamiliar to SEOs. Maybe you already understand what the definition of Anchor Text is , but to use Anchor Text effectively and optimally, not everyone knows it for sure. Follow this article, I will reveal to you the strategy of using Anchor Text to promote high ranking.

What is Anchor Text?

Anchor Text is a piece of text displayed with a hyperlink. Clicking on these hyperlinks will redirect to another website or URL. Anchor Text also has other names such as link label, link text, or link title.

Using the right anchor text helps increase traffic to that link and helps search engines appreciate your link.

Learn about What is Anchor Text?

The role of anchor text in SEO

Search engines use Anchor Text to determine the topic of the web page it is linked to and which keywords it should rank for. It is an important factor in search engine ranking algorithms.

Therefore, anchor text plays an important role in any link building for SEO strategy.

Anchor Text provides context for links by telling search engines which query it should rank for. So it has an impact on the site’s organic search volume and performance.

A website that wants to rank well in search results should use links with the right keywords in the anchor text pointing to it.

Anchor text can increase the user experience on the website. When users are quickly scrolling through an article, anchor text helps them instantly identify the link they are looking for and click on that link.

Common Types of Anchor Text

To build an effective Anchor Text strategy , you need to understand the types of Anchor Text. I will share 12 popular Anchor Text Types in this section so you better understand their definitions and how to use them in SEO strategies.

Brand Anchor Text – Brand Anchor Text

Brand anchor text is any type of link title that contains the brand name. They are a safe link label and great for branding, as long as your website isn’t an exact domain name.

If you have public figures associated with your brand such as executives, journalists, influencers or famous authors, Google may also identify any association with your name. They are like a branded Anchor Text.

However, make sure you don’t over-optimize to the point of keyword stuffing.

Generic Anchors – Generic Text Anchor

Surely you will come across this type of Anchor Text a lot. This is the most popular and widely used Anchor Text in the world. Generic link labels will look like this:

• “Here”
• “See more”
• “Visit here”
• …

Naked Link Anchors – Anchor Text in the form of a naked link

The bare Anchor Text link is known as the Anchor Text URL. This is a text link that points to your website through a URL. You just need to leave the URL as it is and attach the link pointing to the website you want.

You can see links like these often at the bottom of articles on pages that include documents. This type of anchor text isn’t pretty, but Google likes Naked Link Anchor because they’re less likely to think you’re trying to spam to rank for keywords.

No Anchor Trick – Don’t use Anchor Text

No Anchor Trick is a small strategy that big brands often use. Here is an idea to build “No anchor” through images.

Note: You should not fill in the ALT Text, but only the Anchor Text in the image. Or simply insert the link text inside the title of the article.

Image Anchor Text – Image Anchor Text

You probably already know that it’s important to add ALT tags to image descriptions. The ALT Tag for the image is what Google reads as the Image Anchor Text (when the image is supposed to be part of the link).

Implementing Image Anchor Text is something you should do to improve image SEO in Google search engine. In particular, alt text provides image descriptions for people using screen readers. So take care to make sure your alt text is short and accurately describes the image in question.

Brand Anchor Text + Keyword

This type of anchor text consists of the brand name (or branded phrase) and a keyword. They can help you optimize for keywords without being viewed as spam by Google and build brand recognition.

Related Anchor Text (LSI – Latent Semantic Indexing)

Relevant link text links to a page using a variation of the target keyword. They are like partial match keywords, but the related anchor text doesn’t include the exact keyword phrase.

You can also type directly in the search bar about your field or service. Google will suggest related keywords that users search for.

You should build some related anchor text to help Google crawlers better understand all the links. Plus, this will keep your links diverse and Google won’t consider them as spammy links.

Partial Anchor Text – Partial Anchor Text

Partially matched Anchor Text is a form of Anchor Text that closely resembles LSI. The biggest difference lies in the person who created it. These link labels will be linked to other link titles suggested by Google or keywords with high search volume.

Here is an example to help you understand partial match Anchor Text. The exact keyword is “SEO services”:

• Prestigious SEO service
• Learn about SEO services

Those are text links that link to another website naturally.

Long Tail Anchor Text (Long – Tail Anchor Text)

Long Anchor Texts are similar to partially matched Anchor Texts, but they contain more words. These link labels give you the opportunity to generate keywords that include the keyword along with some related or branded keywords.

Sometimes, long link titles can include the entire subheading or title for a link. Writers can use title links to link to a whole sentence.

Although you don’t always have to write long text links, this type of link label is very useful for SEO.

Exact Match Anchor Text – Exact Match Anchor Text

Anchor Text is exactly the target keyword your site is linking to. This is the Anchor Text that has a direct influence in promoting keyword rankings. However, more than 90% of SEOers in Vietnam abuse this and get penalized by Google.

Anchor Text field keywords

This is the type of Anchor Text that covers or details your field.

Link text keywords in the field of use:

• Increase variety for link labels.
• Help Google understand more deeply and better about the field that the article is referring to.
• SEO target keywords easily without fear of over-optimization

Why does Google like this type of Anchor Text ? Simply put, Google, especially Google RankBrain , values ​​relevancy very highly. The more keywords related to your niche, the more Google loves your site

Anchor Text Synonyms

If you are SEO, the exact keyword is “SEO service”, then the link labels of this type will be “SEO company”, “SEO expert”. These are synonymous text links but do not contain SEO keywords.

So, it will help you avoid keyword over-optimization and promote accurate link text. In addition, these Anchor Texts also help you SEO thousands of keywords in the article very effectively.

How to Create Anchor Text

To create Anchor Text , you need to memorize this HTML code:

<a hrefs= “https://example.com”> Anchor Text</a>

If you use Wordpress , just highlight the Anchor Text and click the Link button on the toolbar.

How to optimize anchor text for effective SEO

Anchor Text optimization is geared towards Google’s best practices, not fooling Google’s algorithm. This is absolutely not beneficial for your website.

The BERT update was released in October 2019. Google BERT uses natural language to understand and rank pages. What does this mean for link titles? I can’t be 100% sure it makes sense for link labels.

Now Google pays more attention to the context around anchor texts . Instead of just reading the anchor text, Google’s crawlers are also able to scan and look at the surrounding words and sentences more often than before.

It also means that Google prioritizes user experience and answering search queries over anything else. So that’s why it’s important to optimize Anchor Text and create a better user experience.

Short and concise anchor text

Although there is no limit to the Anchor Text length. However, you should also create short, easy to understand, and concise link title links . This makes your article more SEO friendly.

If you have punctuation right before or after a link, put the punctuation outside the link tags.

Do not link to or earn links from malicious websites

Google is very interested in the sites you link to .

If you link to a website that spreads misinformation, incitement, or spam, your website may be penalized by Google. Even if your site has good intentions, links can still affect search engine rankings.

Google understands that sometimes you have to link to “bad” websites for reference. In that case, you need to leave the nofollow attribute for these links.

>>See more: The role of quality backlinks in Anchor Text strategy

Make sure Anchor Texts are relevant

Anchor Text Relevancy is the key to good website ranking. You should not over-optimize link text because it can lead to spam. Instead, create text links related to the linked topic.

Remember, Google uses Anchor Text to learn all the information about web pages to rank for keywords in the search engine. Choose a meaningful link label to attach the link to to create a positive user experience.

Anchor text in the right context

Google’s recent BERT update indicates that the search engine is adjusting its strategy with regard to natural language and surrounding context.

When you read an article, you not only look at the anchor text to decide whether to click the link, but also read the surrounding sentences and paragraphs to understand what the link is about. Google bots will scan the words in the entire article and also the links.

Note: Avoid using the same linking words throughout the entire article even if you are linking to different websites. Because Google can still see it as over-optimization and penalize you.

Various Anchor Texts

Diversification is important for Google to rank your website high as long as the links are quality. Diversifying Anchor Text is not difficult.

However, it is important that the anchor text is relevant to the target page and in the right context.

There are 2 ways to help you diversify your link labels:

• Use keyword research tools to find synonyms, modifiers, or LSI keywords.
• Use many types of Anchor Text such as Brand Anchor Text, Generic Anchor Text, etc. In particular, the correct Anchor Text you should use sparingly to avoid being marked as spam by Google.

Appropriate Anchor Text Density

With the Google Penguin update , Google is taking a closer look at Anchor Text. If a site has too many links or the same anchor text, Google may consider it spam and penalize the site.

Therefore, pay attention to the density of the Anchor Text .

• Brand Anchor Text and Bare Link Anchor Text (35 – 40%)
• General Anchor Text, Image Anchor Text and No Anchor (10%)
• LSI, Anchor Text partial match (12-15%)
• Field Anchor Text and Long Text Anchor (1-3%)
• Anchor Text Accuracy (1 – 5%)

Does Internal Links Using the Same Anchor Text Affect Google Ranking?

Frequently asked questions about Anchor Text

Why is Anchor Text important?

• Anchor Text helps readers get what they want when they click on the link.
• Anchor Text helps Google know what your content is about as well as the context around the anchor text, so Google will rank high for related queries.

What is the difference between hyperlink and anchor text?

A hyperlink is the link itself. Anchor Text is the text or name given to the link when the hyperlink is added. Anchor Text can make links more valuable and appreciated.

Reference articles

>> What is SEO ? The role of SEO Website for small and medium businesses
>> Summary of the latest 21 basic and advanced Onpage SEO 
standards

>>Why should you pay attention to building a link strategy in Offpage SEO ?

Conclusion

Above is the general knowledge from A – Z about what Anchor Text is . Hope these knowledge will be useful to you, giving you more skills to use Anchor Text for your SEO projects. I believe that if you use the right Anchor Texts, no Google algorithm update can beat you. Good luck with your link title strategies.