Anchor Text Optimization: The Untold SEO Best Practices

An anchor text is the clickable text in a hyperlink. To put it in a simpler manner, it is the text that links to another location or document or website on the internet with the use of hyperlinks from your page.

Anchor texts are important to improve your ranking in SEO. It is added for the benefit of Search Engines, so that they can determine what the "linked-to page" is.

However, you will have to use it very vigilantly or else your organic search traffic will disappear or will be penalized. Optimization is when you link your targeted keyword.

Over optimization is when you believe every word to be your targeted keyword and you link it. Google uses anchor texts to understand whether or not a particular website is relevant.

They also serve the search engines to penalize spamming website and over optimization of anchor text.

There is a variety of anchor texts that you should have an idea about so that you can better understand their required optimization if need be and benefit out of it.

Types of Anchor Texts

1. Generic Anchors - anchors that are general in nature and can be used by/at all the platforms of pages are called generic anchors. For example: “click here”, “more info” etc.

2. Branded Anchors- anchors that use brand name as their text are called branded anchors.

3. Image anchors- images can also be used as anchors by using simple HTML codes which would lead you to another page if clicked. These are called image anchors.

4. LSI Anchors - Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) is a mathematical process of determining the relationship between terms/concepts in a specific content. LSI anchors are the synonyms or variations of your prime keyword.

For example: If your keyword is “car parts” so your anchor text reads as “automotive parts”, “car spare parts”, “auto parts” etc.

5. Partial match Anchors - when your anchor text has phrases including your keyword, so that you are using anchor in a manner of focusing your targeted keyword discreetly if not completely.

For example: if your keyword is “Batman figures”, so your anchor text reads “best Batman toys here”, “Batman action figures are here” etc.

6. Exact match Anchors - when your targeted keyword is your anchor text, it is called exact match anchor. For example: if your keyword is “Laptop”, so your anchor text also is Laptop.

How To Optimize Your Anchor Links

Since the quality of anchor texts you use, are an essential parameter of your SEO and genuinely make or break your website’s/page’s visits and viewers, so you need to keep them upgraded and frequently optimized.

Now that you already know about anchor text and understand them, let us move to their optimization. Here are some tips you could follow to keep your anchor texts optimized —

Natural and Versatile

Every part of any website, including anchor text, should provide real value to users. Links must be put only where users expect to see them, so they can get informed about something valuable to them.

You should link to high-quality, relevant pages and disavow all links from low-quality, non-relevant web pages.

Getting links from sites with high Domain Authority, Page Authority, and Trust Flow is also an essential requirement.

Proportionate Anchor Distribution

There is no exact “right” proportion of anchors exists for usage s it depends on what your content is about and who your targeted viewers are and also your choice of keywords.

One way of doing it simply is avoid over-stuffing. And make use of what Google (or other search engines) allow. Make sure that you do a thorough analysis of your genre and competitors.

Observe the anchor text cloud of websites ranked at the top, and then start adjusting your website’s anchor text cloud too.

Anchors focused on Deep level Pages

Sometimes, many SEO professionals focus the anchors they build on top-level pages, such as homepage, landing pages etc.

This does not look natural to Google and other search engines, because it is not natural to place links in that way.

Instead, focus your anchors on relevant, deep-level pages. It will help you create a natural, versatile anchor text cloud and also allow visitors to navigate to top-level pages.

Theme your Internal Links

When you theme your internal links increases your keyword strength which converts into higher Search Engine ranking.

You could also position your main keywords first by linking your most visited pages. You could also use alt in attribute of images, or sitemaps, locations etc.

Keep a Track of Your Anchor Texts

When you’re building backlinks, it’s crucial that you track the anchor texts you’ve used. You need to be organized and ensure that you’re not over-optimizing your page with keyword-rich anchors.

You could track your anchors on an Excel spreadsheet and systematically avoid overusing those you’ve already used.

Use Modifiers

Everything needs to be user-friendly today. If your users are not able to find what they’re looking for easily or have to rigorously keep looking or have to go through things they do not want to look for in order to find their ultimate interest, you’re losing visitors then and there.

Your keywords have to be such that they’re omnipotent, diverse and time effective. Use modifiers such as, colour details, make type, range, or other filtering options (depending upon your product).

Anchor text optimization practices are dynamic in nature. They keep evolving with time. Although the concept of Anchor Text Optimization seems basic in nature (not much lavish as I mean), it serves as one of the foundations for an establishment called Search Engine Optimization.

SEO does include the optimization of your web content in a manner that could reciprocate the search behavior of a potential buyer, with the help of potential keywords in the right place at the right time.

Also, focus on creating your links organically, as it gives it a humanly touch, helps your buyers (non-electronic, lol) to connect better.

Use quality content and a vast range of anchor texts with an effective co-ordination between citation and occurrence. You also get the benefit of higher ranking and security from being penalized.