Using Anchor Text to Boost SEO Rankings
Using Anchor Text to Boost SEO Rankings
Anchor text, for those who are unaware, is the clickable text part of a link. It is a message to users and the search engines, telling them what they should find if they actually click the link. But all too often, the only anchor text you get is “click here”. This is not only unhelpful to users, but it is a total waste of a link that could be helping to boost your SEO rankings for a keyword. It kind of counts as a vote, telling Google you are voting for that website to show up for that specific term. Let us examine a few points of anchor text that makes it a powerful tool for SEO:
1. Choosing Your Anchor Text
If you are inserting the anchor text directly on your website, you will need to use the appropriate hyperlink reference tag. Here is an example of how to create your link:
<a href=”www.mydomain.com”>Anchor Text Here</a>
The anchor text portion will be the only part users can see, and will become the blue hyperlink. Some content management systems have a link button you can click to create links, rather than needing to write out the tags.
If you are posting on someone else’s website, you may not be able to choose your anchor text, so you can either try inserting the HTML, or asking them if they will activate certain anchor text for you.
2. Anchor Text Should be a Description of What You Will Find if You Click
The purpose of anchor text is mainly to tell a user what will be found if they click the link. So what are you telling the user, and thereby the search engines they will find if you use the anchor text “click here”? Nothing at all. Google uses anchor text as one factor in their algorithms of deciding what terms you should rank for. If you use “click here” as anchor text, you are telling Google your website should rank for the term “click here”, which I am guessing is not what your website is about. Try using targeted anchor text, such as a product name, or a keyword.
3. Is Anchor Text Really That Important?
Yes. Anchor text can have a powerful effect on where your website ranks. It is for precisely this reason that some malicious individuals have been able to Google bomb other’s websites. Google bombs show that you can get just about any website to rank for just about any keyword on Google, just by linking to it enough times with the correct anchor text.
The lesson of the day, then, is this: Do not overlook the importance of anchor text! It can make or break your SEO results, and can be one thing that sets you above your competitors.
Anchor text, for those who are unaware, is the clickable text part of a link. It is a message to users and the search engines, telling them what they should find if they actually click the link. But all too often, the only anchor text you get is “click here”. This is not only unhelpful to users, but it is a total waste of a link that could be helping to boost your SEO rankings for a keyword. It kind of counts as a vote, telling Google you are voting for that website to show up for that specific term. Let us examine a few points of anchor text that makes it a powerful tool for SEO:
1. Choosing Your Anchor Text
If you are inserting the anchor text directly on your website, you will need to use the appropriate hyperlink reference tag. Here is an example of how to create your link:
<a href=”www.mydomain.com”>Anchor Text Here</a>
The anchor text portion will be the only part users can see, and will become the blue hyperlink. Some content management systems have a link button you can click to create links, rather than needing to write out the tags.
If you are posting on someone else’s website, you may not be able to choose your anchor text, so you can either try inserting the HTML, or asking them if they will activate certain anchor text for you.
2. Anchor Text Should be a Description of What You Will Find if You Click
The purpose of anchor text is mainly to tell a user what will be found if they click the link. So what are you telling the user, and thereby the search engines they will find if you use the anchor text “click here”? Nothing at all. Google uses anchor text as one factor in their algorithms of deciding what terms you should rank for. If you use “click here” as anchor text, you are telling Google your website should rank for the term “click here”, which I am guessing is not what your website is about. Try using targeted anchor text, such as a product name, or a keyword.
3. Is Anchor Text Really That Important?
Yes. Anchor text can have a powerful effect on where your website ranks. It is for precisely this reason that some malicious individuals have been able to Google bomb other’s websites. Google bombs show that you can get just about any website to rank for just about any keyword on Google, just by linking to it enough times with the correct anchor text.
The lesson of the day, then, is this: Do not overlook the importance of anchor text! It can make or break your SEO results, and can be one thing that sets you above your competitors.
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