Oct 14, 2019
Casey Bjorkdahl is one of the pioneering thought leaders in the SEO community. In 2010, Casey co-founded Vazoola after working for a Digital Marketing Agency for five years in New York City. Vazoola is now one of the fastest growing and most widely recognized SEO marketing firms in the country.
What do you think of when you hear the term “anchor”? This word probably calls to mind ships, maritime life and ocean voyages.
Perhaps it recalls the idea of safety and security or being grounded. However, when it comes to creating original material for your website, anchors take on a different meaning.
Anchor text is specific words highlighted to form an internal link.
Quality anchor text lets you build links that encourage readers to click through to other pages on your site, thus increasing user interest and eventually helping your search engine ranking.
Better SEO rankings make it easier for users to find your web pages, which is the ultimate point of being on the internet.
More page views increase your audience size. With more readers, you may earn more followers and possibly more sales.
Using appealing anchor text is a powerful way to improve your digital marketing strategy. Here are six great ways to optimize your anchor text.
1. Be Descriptive
The days of the old generic terms “here” and “click here” are gone. If you want to compel readers to click through and visit more of your pages, use descriptive anchor text that tells users what they will find when they click the link.
This gives readers more value when they visit your site.
For example, if describing the attributes of dog breeds, include specific terms such as “size”, “hounds”, and “toy breeds”.
Specific terms help readers quickly find the information they need. This positions you to be considered an expert and readers often remember useful sites that make their internet searches easier.
Furthermore, optimized anchor text signals to Google how relevant your site is to specific searches.
Keywords are precise terms for which readers popularly search. Include keywords in anchor links to make your site appear both pertinent and trustworthy to users and search engines.
As more users visit your site based upon keyword-rich anchors, Google’s algorithms will begin to recognize your site as relevant. This can organically raise your SEO rankings.
2. Stay Relevant
Make sure the types of anchor text you use are relevant to the content to which the link points. Sending readers to irrelevant material causes two big problems.
First, it gives users a poor experience. It can annoy people who may avoid your website in the future. Second, search engines, including giant Google, want to direct users to relevant content.
Therefore, match anchor text exactly to the pages being pointed to, and also make good use of partial match anchors, which increase the relevancy of your link profile.
3. Link Wisely
When you are devising links to pages, pay attention to anchor text distribution. Avoid filling one sentence with multiple links.
In addition, do not fill one piece of content with lots of linked words, often called keyword stuffing.
Google’s Penguin update is an algorithm that decreases rankings for web pages that violate the search engine’s content quality specifications, which includes the overuse of keywords.
4. Choose Nouns
A well-chosen targeted keyword can compel readers to spend more time on your site. Quality latent semantic indexing keywords, or LSI keywords, are related to your main terms.
They mirror your content, and they are generally nouns. You get better results when you link to nouns rather than verbs.
Verbs are more imprecise and abstract, whereas nouns are specific and concrete. Nouns make useful image anchors that let users visualize what they will see when they click on your link.
5. Be Concise
Do not make links out of full sentences. This is more difficult for readers to understand, and Google discourages this.
Instead, choose relevant, descriptive words and short phrases to create internal links.
6. Be Creative
When building internal links and choosing keywords, flex your language muscles and use varying terms and phrases.
Google does not like multiple links with the same anchor text. Numerous related keywords and links indicate your site is consistently pertinent across its pages and in its subject matter.
Use both single terms and short phrases.
Optimizing anchor text within your web content helps you in multiple ways. It provides a good service to users and increases the chances they will visit other pages on your web site.
Search engines like good anchor text because they want to direct users to useful content applicable to search parameters.
By using specific tactics, you can strengthen your online content with great anchor text rich appropriate keywords. Doing so helps both your users and ultimately your business.
