How to Optimize Your Link Anchor Text for SEO

Link anchor text is an integral element of SEO, but many people choose more or less random anchor text for their links. This results in either under or overutilization of the backlinks and the internal links.

Google doesn’t know what links are actually for. The link text used for those links defines their true purpose and allows Google’s algorithm to index and rank your website effectively. Which, in SEO, is really the key to everything.

As more and more businesses invest heavily in SEO, the SEO landscape is becoming increasingly competitive. This means every small detail should be completely optimized and is resulting in many businesses choosing to work with a professional link building agency.

Let’s take a look at the top tips and ways to optimize the link anchor text for the best SEO results.

What Are the Different Types of Anchor Text?

Exact Match or True-match:

If the anchor text is an exact description of the linked page, this is called an exact-match. For example, if a link for a free wallpapers website has an anchor text “Free HD Wallpapers” then this would be an exact match.

Partial Match:

If the anchor text matches a partial description of the linked page, it is known as a partial match. If a link for a free wallpapers website has an anchor text “Best Wallpapers for your iPhone” then it is a partial match.

Branded:

When the brand name is used as anchor text for the respective link, it is known as a branded anchor text. For example: ‘Google’ linking to an article on the Google Developers Page.

Naked link:

When a URL is used without any anchor text, it is a naked link anchor. Writing “www.google.com” would be a naked link anchor.

Generic:

When a generic word or phrase is used as the anchor text, it becomes a generic anchor. “Click here” is a common generic anchor.

Images:

The text contained in the image’s alt attribute becomes its anchor text.

What Are the Best Ways to Optimize Link Anchor Text?

Filling uplink anchor text with too much non-contextual text or brand names is not a good idea. If you want the best possible on-page and off-page optimization, it is important to learn the key SEO practices to optimize your anchor text.

Precise Anchor Text

Instead of using a long phrase or sentence for the anchor text, you should choose a precise, short and concise word or set of words for your anchor text. It is easier and more efficient to optimize a small group of words rather than a long sentence.

Link Relevant Anchor Text:

Link relevancy is one of the key parts of optimizing your anchor text. Search engines have evolved over the course of the years, and it is time for our practices to evolve as well.

Modern algorithms are made up of complex systems involving many metrics to determine how they rank websites. The algorithms are designed to determine the relevancy between the anchor text and the targeted link. The lower the relevancy, the lower the ranking.

Your link anchor text should be coherent and relevant to the overall topic and niche. The link relevancy is determined by two major factors.

• The topic and content of the source page
• The text of the anchor text

If these two aren’t relevant, it is seen as a low relevancy link anchor. The more relevant both these factors are to the general topic of the source page, the more optimized your link will be.

Keyword Density of Anchor Text:

The Penguin algorithm update brought Google one step closer to an efficient method of identifying keywords in anchor texts. Too many external links are seen as suspicious. Google sees this as abusing keywords.

Naturally, you should use appropriate links which use relevant keywords or anchor texts for the links. Moreover, too many anchor texts and overstuffing of the keywords is also viewed as an unnatural use of keywords.

Google sees overuse of keywords, internal linking, and backlinks as a spamming activity and will rank your website lower than your SEO competitors. The keyword density should be appropriate with respect to the length of your content.

Bring Diversity to Anchor Texts:

If you use the same keyword, phrase of anchor text often for your links, it may be viewed as a spammy behaviour by search engines.

Make sure to use different versions of your intended keywords for links. Bringing diversity to your anchor texts is among the top SEO practices for promoting your website with content appropriate internal and external links.

Final Thoughts

The relationship between anchor text and Technical SEO is an important one. You need to understand that your link anchor texts are essentially summaries of your external links.

Appropriate and relevant link anchor text increases the authenticity of your website. This gives a boost to your online digital presence, and your website is promoted to the top of the relevant keyword search results.

Building natural and quality links is a must for modern SEO. If you want a high-ranking website which attracts more organic traffic and therefore drives more sales and profit, you need to make link anchor text part of your SEO strategy.

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