What is Anchor Text and Why is it Important for SEO?

You need to be mindful when using anchor text in order to increase trust, as well as ensure you link to relevant and high quality web pages that add value for your visitors. It helps to boost SEO efforts by giving search engine crawlers the right signals, helping the crawlers identify pages to be crawled and indexed, helping you ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Types of Anchor Text

There are a number of different types of anchor text. Understanding the different types helps you determine which are best for your SEO strategy:

• Phrase match – phrase match is a link title that contains a phrase where your website is trying to improve ranking.
• Partial match – this uses a variation of the phrase match, offering the same results
• Branded text – branded anchor texts are commonly used, especially when referring to a particular home page
• Generic – This is the most recognisable, used in adverts and CTA buttons, usually they include “click here,” or “buy now.”

How to Optimise Anchor Text for SEO

Understanding the different types of anchor text is one thing, but putting them into action is another. Some of the best practices for optimising your anchor text for SEO includes:

• Distinguishable Anchor Text - Some platforms enable you to blend your anchor text in with surrounding text. You want your anchor text clearly marked so users know they can click on it. The most common is blue highlighting, immediately showing users that clicking on the link will transport them to another relevant page.
• Never Mislead Visitors - Ensure your anchor text to provide the agreed content
• Keep a Natural Flow – Your content should flow naturally. When approaching anchor text use it strategically, using natural language where possible to keep a good flow.
• Link Relevancy – Keep your readers search intent in mind and confirm if the anchor text matches the content
• Do Not Overstuff Keywords – keyword stuffing is known as a problem in your content, the same as search engines penalise you on over-optimised anchor texts or low quality links
• Use a Diverse Anchor Text Profile – Add variety to your anchor text profile to avoid penalisation

Conclusion

Anchor texts play a role in your SEO strategy. When used naturally, they are valuable tools to direct website visitors to your other relevant web pages, engaging the visitor for longer, keeping them on your website for longer, and reducing your bounce rate. As a result, you can increase your brand viability by improving your ranking in SERPs. Anchor text is also useful to search engines, guiding them on what web pages to crawl and index.