Anchor text is the clickable piece of text in a hyperlink. A link is therefore linked to this piece of text. As soon as you click on the text, you will be redirected to another page. It can be a page within the same website or a page from an external site.
You can recognize an anchor text very easily. These texts usually have a different color and are often underlined. In addition, the text is clickable. If you move your mouse over this text, the icon will immediately change into a hand.
The anchor text is very important for your SEO. However, most marketing companies only focus on the link attached to this text. Giving them a name is just a detail. However, it can have a very positive influence on your SEO, and with correct and good anchor text, you immediately give your marketing strategy a huge boost!
The different types of anchor text.
Anchor texts are extremely important to Google. In addition to the general content of your website and the underlying links, Google uses these texts to determine the relevance of your site. However, there are many different types of anchor characters. To score as high as possible, it is best to look for a balanced distribution of the different types :
General anchor text
The general anchor texts are probably the best-known examples. For example, consider a “click here” link. Nowadays, however, it is not recommended to include these types of outdated texts on your website. They don’t necessarily give you a negative rating from Google, but you can give them a better interpretation.
Brand name or company name
Brand or company names are extremely popular as anchor text. You can process these names in a very natural way in the text, and Google will not judge them negatively. However, to optimize your position in search results, you need to build a diverse profile. Do not mention your company name too often, and try to use the other options sufficiently.
Naked anchor text
A naked anchor text only contains the URL to which the text refers. Even though this seems like a very simple and boring solution, it is definitely a good idea for your SEO to place a naked text in your text.
Anchor in an image
Any marketing professional with some SEO experience knows how important images are to Google. Therefore, be sure to include one or more images in your link profile. You can also place a link and anchor in the images. Google considers the alt text of the image as the anchor text.
Relevant keywords
Finally, of course, there are the keywords. Keywords are essential for Google to determine the authority of your page. Therefore, use a number of important and relevant keywords as anchor text. Keep in mind that you should place a combination of all types of anchor text on your site and not just focus on the keywords. Google does not like over-optimization and punishes this strategy mercilessly.
How can you best use an anchor text?
Link building and the associated anchor texts are increasingly important to Google. They use the link profile to give authority to your website. The more pages pointing to your website, the better and more relevant your site is in the eyes of Google.
To create an optimal link profile, you need to incorporate different types of anchor text into your website. Don’t just try to use keywords as anchor text; also include other types of text on your site. It’s hard to say exactly what the ideal anchor text distribution looks like. We do know that Google wants the entire link profile to come about naturally. Therefore, make sure that the anchor texts used are relevant and match the content of the external website.
Watch out for overoptimization. Some companies focus on the use of keywords and forget to include other types of anchor text in their link profiles. Because Google only wants naturally constructed profiles, the search engine assigns a penalty to these types of strategies.
The importance of good anchor text and SEO
Google wants the users of the search engine to see some relevant pages with new and reliable information. To determine which site is shown first, Google gives each website a rating. The search engine takes into account more than 200 factors during its assessment. However, link building and anchor texts are crucial for a good ranking in the search engine.
Google needs relevant anchor text to understand what the page is about. By placing different anchor texts on your website, Google immediately knows for which search terms you want to be found. Moreover, you immediately build authority on those topics. Especially if you form a varied and natural link profile, you will gain relevance and a better position.
The anchor texts also have a huge influence on your conversion rate. By using correct, relevant, and logical texts, you guide your visitors to the right page, and you will immediately achieve more conversions. If your anchors mislead the customer and lead them to an irrelevant part of the website, you lose potential revenue and get a lower ranking.
How can you add an anchor to the text?
It is very easy to add an anchor text to a text. If you’re working with HTML, you should put the text between the a tags. In this way, the URL is automatically added to the text, and every visitor is quickly directed to the right page.
Many websites are created with WordPress. Here too, you can indicate an anchor text in a very easy way. First of all, you need to select the text. Then click on the link icon and add the exact URL. You will find this icon at the top of the taskbar, next to the icons to center text. As soon as you click on the blue arrow, it will be created immediately.
After creating the anchor text, it is best to test it out. This is a step that is sometimes overlooked. It may be that the URL was copied incorrectly or that there is another problem. Links that lead to an error page are quickly penalized by Google and will therefore negatively affect your ranking.
Conclusion
Link building has become one of Google’s decisive factors in determining the relevance and authority of a website. Therefore, many companies focus enormously on collecting external and internal links. However, the importance of anchor texts is often underestimated. Most companies fill in the text with keywords so that they can be found more easily on these terms. What these companies forget is that Google prioritizes varied and natural link profiles.
To put together an optimal profile, you should therefore use various types of anchor texts. In this way, Google sees that your external and internal links are created with natural terms, so you will appear higher in the ranking.
Just be careful not to try to manipulate Google’s algorithm. As soon as Google suspects that you are trying to trick the system, you will get a penalty and forget about a high ranking!
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