Keep your SEO strategy behind

Anchor on the boat keeps the ship from drifting.

Anchors in your content keep Google (and your readers) from floating.

When Google crawls your site, it looks for the link text. Done well, that content signals relevance and authority. Done poorly, it can make your content sink in the eyes of Google (and readers).

Done poorly, anchor text can sink your content in the eyes of Google, said @madmanick via @CMIContent. #SEO Click to Tweet

What is anchor text?

Anchor text is a display word or phrase that contains a link to other content. With one click on a phrase, readers can move from their original content destination to another. It could be another web page, another page on the same page, or even a PDF file.

In this HTML encoding, the anchor text is “Contact Us” and is linked to an internal page: https://linkgraph.io/learn-how-we-can-grow-your-business:

Good anchor text effectively describes its destination. Relevance is key because anchor text is meant to identify content that is accessed with a single click.

How does anchor text connect to search rankings?

As Google's search engine crawlers scroll your site, link text can indicate the quality of your pages, including:

Relevance: An accurate description of the link text that tells Google the linked content is relevant. This increases the likelihood that Google will associate your site with that keyword or topic and rank it better in the rankings. SERPs for similar keyword phrases.

Theme width: Quality anchor text with internal links notifies Google's crawlers that your site has other useful information. It says visitors won't need to leave your site to get answers to their additional questions.

Experience page: Misleading anchor text becomes a source of frustration for visitors who click on it and are frustrated to find an unrelated page. Relevant link text shows Google that you want to create a quality experience for your visitors.

Google uses anchor text and links to detect relevance, topic breadth, and page experience, notes @madmanick via @CMIContent. #SEO Click to Tweet

What are the types of anchor text?

Not all anchor texts are created equal. Among the options:

Branded – Contains company names or terms unique to your domain

Exact match – Include the exact keyword you want to rank for

Partial match – Contains a variation of the keyword you want to rank for

Nude URL – Include a simple URL, such as www.contentmarketinginstitution.com

Shared – Provide the least context, such as “click here,” “page,” or “read more.”

Using contextual anchor text is one of the most effective means of building trust for your brand. Linking to useful, high-quality content other than contextual anchor text demonstrates to Google strong relevancy signals . Google will also look at the text surrounding the link text to understand relevancy, so a blog is often a great place to link back to your main page or pillar pages with context.

Using contextual anchor text is one of the most effective means of building trust for your brand, @madmanick via @CMIContent. #SEO Click to Tweet

High-quality links also help build your credibility among industry professionals and improve the overall user experience of your site.

Google also emphasizes the importance of variety of anchor text . Repeated link text is indicative of spammy SEO behavior . The combination of branded match links, exact match, partial match, and phrase match is more natural and presents a complete and informative web page.

Recommend word anchor text distribution Moz .

TIP: Use link text in headers and footers with the highest-value content relevant to search.

What are the mistakes to avoid?

Google provides some general guidelines to create anchor text . However, many content creators don't read the 32-page documentation and make mistakes that can harm their SEO. Here are three of the most common:

1. Not relevant

One of the main functions of anchor text is to provide context to the user about the link destination. Irrelevant anchor text may get more clicks at first, but spam and misleading techniques won't be appreciated by Google or visitors who click it like Google's John Mu confirm .

Example for a blog post about the benefits of company recruiting software:

Bad: Recruitment is a huge challenge for HR department .
- Link to internal article: HR Leaders Should Have a Seat at the Executive Desk

Better: Recruit is a big challenge for HR departments.
- Link to Internal Article: Top 5 Hiring Problems and How to Fix them

The best: Recruit is a big challenge for HR departments.
- Link to Internal Article: The Benefits of Automating Your Early Hiring

2. Too long

More specificity in your link text can give Google better context. However, long anchor text becomes a problem when it's unclear or overloaded with keywords. Although Google doesn't detail exact instructions, it and site visitors prefer descriptive but concise link text.

Eg:

Terrible: Learn more about our annual winter sale.

Better: Learn more about our annual winter sale.

The best: Learn more about our annual winter sale.

Don't make your anchor text too long. According to @madmanick via @CMIContent, it's possible to stuff a keyword into Google. #SEO Click to Tweet

3. Lack of context

Ideally, anchor text should tell the reader what is possible with a single click, without any other contextual clues. Generic anchor text, such as "learn more" or "click here," can't do that.

Plus, generic anchor text can be seen as a missed opportunity to help connect the pages of your site with relevant industry topics.

Eg:

Bad: Learn more about the topic

Better: Learn more about the topic in our SEO Blog.

The best: Learn more about anchor text and SEO.

TIP: Google's crawlers use other cues to determine content topics and relevance, but linked content is still useful to both search engines and site visitors.

RELATED CONTENT TO BE CLICKED: Use internal links to get better reception from search engines and readers

Fixed Text Checklist

Keeping up with anchor text do's and don'ts can prove to be a formidable task. To make sure your internal anchor links are as effective as possible, ask these questions: