Anchor Text plays a huge role in how your visitors perceive your brand and content. It is also a defining factor when it comes to how search engines take to your content. So, naturally, if you want a stamp of approval and liking from both the parties, keep it all natural. You heard it. You visitors are investing their valuable time whenever they land on your page looking for answers. Give them a positive experience. The search engines too, when looking to index and rank pages, look at anchor texts as well as the content around it. Give them something to write home about. Here are Top 5 Anchor Text Best Practices that can support your website in the SEO boost you’ve been looking for.
Natural Anchor Text over Manipulated
Instead of indulging in exploiting target keywords to be used as anchor texts to gain an undue edge in organic rankings, prioritize creating natural, descriptive sentences that support the topic to be used as anchor texts. Remember search engines don’t just look at anchor texts but also the neighbouring text and the topic around which the whole piece has been created. Using the same text (because it is a keyword or near-match to the keyword) multiple times to create anchor texts reflects badly on your strategy.
Anchor Texts Should Add Real Value to the Content
There is a practice that is buzzing around in the SEO community whereby multiple types of anchor texts are being used to link to the site’s pages. While this makes sense on paper, the whole ‘not putting all eggs in the same basket’ and all, the best anchor text practice is still using whatever comes naturally. So, instead of sticking to a rigid mandate of using multiple types of anchor texts (branded, exact match, LSI, naked etc.), try focusing on what comes naturally and adds real value to the content in place.
Help Out Your Visitors
Imagine you are reading through an interesting piece of content on how to boost your page’s organic rankings and traffic and suddenly find a blue link titled ‘read more’ in the middle of it. Now you are probably thinking, ‘read more about what?’ and speculating whether or not to go ahead with the click because you’d really like to know more. But at the same time also wondering if it is worthwhile to deviate off the topic and spend time deciphering information that might be on this page. Don’t do this to your visitors. Use anchor text that clearly states what the visitor may find at the other end and that it will actually add to the topic and help him out. The whole idea is to remove surprises for your visitors for a seamless reading experience.
Length Matters, but There is No Right or Wrong
The right length of the anchor text depends upon what needs to be communicated. It could be slightly longer, it could be shorter, but as principle, avoid using sentences that go on for more than a line. And the right length of anchor text is whatever that doesn’t disturb the flow of reading of the visitor. For example, the better version of How Focusing on User Intent Can Leverage Link Building in 2022 would be Focus on User Intent to Leverage Link Building in 2022. It may only be a difference of a few words, but it does end up making a lot of difference.
Anchor Text Should Visually Stand Out
Usually, blue links do the job. But there are other ways, better ways, which SEOs around the world have been using to make the anchor texts stand out in a much better and visually appealing way. Think about your brand’s colours that also go along seamlessly with your website’s design. Use these colour co-ordinations to create anchor texts that the visitors can’t miss, and using the above practices, makes them want to click too.
Anchor text and your content strategy usually go hand in hand. Poor content won’t get you clicks. Poorly executed anchor texts won’t get you clicks either, no matter how good the content and content’s presentation is. Last but not the last, keep it all natural for your visitors and you’ll do yourself a world of good.
