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If you have done some serious reading about your website optimization, you probably would have come across the reference to the phrase “optimization of anchor text”. This article shall discuss the definition and importance of anchor text and how you can use this powerful website optimization feature to get high ranking in search engines.
What is Anchor Text?
Anchor text is the visible hyperlinked text on the page. Let’s take this example:
“Please examine our SEO case studies for validation to evaluate our search engine optimization capabilities.”
Here the words “SEO case studies” and “search engine optimization” are hyper linked to the hidden URLs http://www.seorank.com/seo-casestudies.htm and www.seorank.com respectively. The words within the hyperlink, “SEO case studies” and “search engine optimization“, are called the anchor text.
In a normally built site, anchor text is usually used to indicate the subject matter of the page that it links to. For example, the text “SEO case studies” indicates to visitors that they can expect to see content about case studies pertaining to SEO if they visit the link. This pattern of usage has been applied in search engine algorithms to enhance the relevance of the “target” or the “landing page” URL for the keywords appearing within the anchor text.
Anchor Text Enhances the Relevance of the Target Page
Please note that the keywords in anchor text enhance the relevance of the target page pertaining to the keywords used. While the relevance of the page containing the anchor text is also enhanced to some degree (because of relevant keywords appearing on that page), the real gainer is the target page URL. Use this knowledge to build the relevance of each page of your site, through optimized anchor text containing important keywords, relevant to the theme of such pages, from other pages of your site.
Search Engine Algorithms like Anchor Text.
The inclusion of important keywords in the anchor text can make a big difference in the final ranking of your site pages. All search engines that matter, give significant weight to the anchor text on your pages. In fact Google even has a special operator: allinanchor:keyword’, which picks up text only from within the anchor text of indexed pages. For example:
This further implies that Google’s algorithm is configured to index anchor text as separate queryable data, thereby, making it evident, that Google considers it an important pointer to page relevance. Our internal research leads us to believe that weight given to anchor text has been raised recently in the Google algorithm. With these changes, it is possible to enhance your website’s ranking by using the right keywords in anchor text.
It has also been studied that anchor text, whether from external, or internal pages, is important. It should therefore be ensured that significant attention is given to the inclusion of important keywords in your anchor text.
How to Optimize Anchor Text Within Your Site
Anchor text optimization can be deployed throughout your site to enhance the relevance of most of the web pages based on individual page content. You would be surprised, how easy it is, to find suitable instances of hyperlinking structures to make use of optimized anchor text.
When linking to internal pages, it is better to use the format:
Read all about Anchor Text Optimization.
Instead of
Read all about Anchor Text Optimization here.
The above example shows us that you can leverage the hyperlinking of important keyword phrases instead of hyperlinking unrelated text wherever possible. It is always a great idea to restructure sentences if keywords don’t fit in anchor text.
Using Keywords in Natural Text to Create Anchor Text
You can also locate (or insert) important keyword phrases in your page’s natural text and link it to relevant target pages of your site. Consider the paragraph below: -
Search Engine Optimization is an important part of any search engine marketing initiative. Some people believe that submitting the site to search engines alone is sufficient in getting top-10 ranking. This is not true. Search engine submission only announces your site’s existence to search engines. To get a good search engine ranking, it is important that you carry out Title tag optimization, Meta tags optimization and anchor text optimization of your website amongst other SEO techniques. You’ll need to optimize the visible text of your site through SEO copywriting after an extensive keyword phrase research. It is also important to boost your Google PageRank in order to get a good website ranking. You can increase PageRank of your site by building your site’s link popularity through a link building campaign. A link exchange campaign with good industry relevant sites is the simplest way to get several incoming links to your site quickly. Remember, search engine positioning is a powerful media for your website promotion.
Now notice below how the above text is reformatted where highly relevant keyword phrases have been converted into powerful anchor text. Each keyword phrase links to an important relevant section of the same site –
Search Engine Optimization is an important part of any search engine marketing initiative. Some people believe that submitting the site to search engines alone is sufficient in getting top-10 ranking. This is not true. Search engine submission only announces your site’s existence to search engines. To get a good search engine ranking, it is important that you carry out Title tag optimization, Meta tags optimization and anchor text optimization of your website amongst other SEO techniques. You’ll need to optimize the visible text of your site through SEO copywriting after an extensive keyword phrase research. It is also important to boost your Google PageRank in order to get a good website ranking.You can increase PageRank of your site by building your site’s link popularity through a link building campaign. A link exchange campaign with good industry relevant sites is the simplest way to get several incoming links to your site quickly. Remember, search engine positioning is a powerful media for your website promotion.
While the above example seems like overkill, this is just to illustrate how you can accommodate your important keyword phrases by carefully rewording the text of your web pages. If you feel that the standard blue underlined hyperlinks appear ugly on your website, then you can re-format its HTML markup code to change color of the text and get rid of the underline without losing the power of the anchor text.
You may not have noticed, but the first paragraph also has the same keywords hyperlinked, but without usual underlines. Bring your mouse over the keywords to notice your cursor show up the hyperlink.
Optimizing Anchor Text of External Links
Keywords within the anchor text are equally useful from links pointing to your website. If you are pursuing or considering a link building campaign, put some serious thought in writing multiple options of the title and description of the link pointing to your website.
The “title” which is usually used as the hyper-linked text, should contain your important keywords. It is good to work with ten different options of title and description as it not only gives you more room to play with several keywords, but it also helps search engines give you a wider keyword coverage.
When soliciting external links, it is better to provide your own “cut and paste” HTML code. Webmasters like it when a ready to paste HTML code is available for them to use, to provide a link to your website.
Consider the following examples:
SEO Rank provides Website promotion and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services for small websites to large e-commerce sites requiring Search Engine Optimization & Ranking
http://www.seorank.com/seo-programs.htm
Increase your Google PageRank (PR) and your website’s Link Popularity through focused link building. Read more about the role of PageRank (PR) in final Search Engine Rankings.
http://www.seorank.com/google-pagerank.htm
SEO Rank offers Search Engine Promotion, SEO, and Link Building services for small to large online businesses.
http://www.seorank.com/seo-services.htm
Search Engine Copywriting services at SEORank – offering Search Engine Copywriting tips and copywriting techniques for creating your Search Engine Friendly copy.
http://www.seorank.com/seo-copywriting-article.htm
Increase your site’s PageRank (PR) and Link Popularity by choosing from our Reciprocal Link Exchange or Only Incoming Link Building Campaigns. Boost your site’s Google PageRank through a focused Link popularity building program.
http://www.seorank.com/link-building-costs-calculator.php
Notice how not only each of the title anchor text is optimized to contain important keyword phrases, but also that the description text varies to accommodate more keyword variation. Also, note that each variation has a different landing page URL to boost the relevance of your site’s individual pages depending upon the theme of that page.
Links from external sites help your site to gain relevance for keywords mentioned in the anchor text which boosts your site’s ranking. As the number of such inbound links increase, so will your site’s ranking in SERPs.
Anchor text therefore comes on top of the checklist in your SEO initiatives.
Jagdeep.S. Pannu (Jerry) is Manager, Online Marketing, at www.SEORank.com, a leading Search Engine Optimization services company. Jerry has put in more than 10 years in diverse fields.
That was exactly what i needed to know – thanks
I dig this article man. Muchos informative thanks!
A very informative article.
Pauline
http://www.ukpetportraits.co.uk
Thanks for the helpful article. I have one question though. I heard if you over over optimize the anchor text, it looks unnatural and google punishes you for that. In other words for example 25 links in a row that says “widgets”. Seems like it need some variation to come across naturally.
http://www.topjuveniledefender.com
Great article,
I’m just skimming the surface on how to use anchor text, and although I have used it in a very limited basis I am now anxious to unleash its full value as part of my SEO techniques.
Very informative and well-written article. I have heard the phrase many times but never really knew the meaning of “anchor text”. Skimmed the article for the moment but am printing it for serious study. Thanks……..
I appreciate your article’s content, my question is what is the best anchor text for a site that provides information?
Thanks for a very informative article, Jerry. However, your text has way too many commas that shouldn’t be there. Excessive punctuation changes the meaning and makes the text harder to read and understand.
Thanks for the nice and useful article. Expecting to get more articles on SEO in future.
This article lays out the specifics of how best to optimization in a manner that is very clear and exceptionally easy to understand. This is a perfect example of how a good writer can make all the difference in the way information is delivered.
Great article! I have added your link to Stumbleupon.
Thanks!
It is a good idea that every body have to use in their SEO.
Thanks,
Arabic and Oriental Sweets
Copy of Passport and ID
At what point is using too much anchor text considered spamming or keyword stuffing? I’m still trying to figure out a healthy ratio for that.
In response to a few questions on this page about when keyword density can get you in trouble, I’ve been reading a lot on SEO, etc., lately and the clearest answer I’ve found is try to keep your keyword density under 10% of your total copy text. It seems this is not a magic number; apparently some sites have keyword densities of 50+ percent and still have high rankings.
I’d recommend reading Chris Richardson’s article on this site called "Keyword Density: How Much Is Too Much?".
I wonder if Google might not punish you for freakishly high keyword density if your site is clean in other other respects? Just a theory.
Thanks for the info. I was searching for anchor text on Big G and found this info…
Here is the detail of offshore outsourcing, outsourcing services india,
and the the projects availabe here
Here is the detail of offshore outsourcing, outsourcing services india,
and the the projects availabe here
Fantastic Article, one of the best I have read on Anchor Text. Also, great opitimization on the article itself….I found it number 1 on google. Do you have a blog or Rss I can subscribe to? I plan on using your methods on this new travel community site
Best,
Sam
Thank you very much. I had no idea what anchor tex is,even though everyone was talking about it. http://www.independentescortsguide.co.uk" target="_blank">London Escorts
Thanks much man, It cleared a lot up for me
http://www.nicadbatteryfix.com
I wish I had read this article when it was first published. Thanks
Good stuff – I have just gone through my pages and put anchor text into my product titles. Been meaning to do it for ages, but more for usablity purposes – I didn’t know search engines put so much weight on this. Thank you
Does anyone know how google treats anchor text that is surrounded by regular text at the end of the page?
Wow, I am amazed how efficent the anchor text can be. I will use it in my webpage called Volunteer World where we offer volunteer opportunities around the world like in Ethiopia, Equador, and others coming soon… And you can also read articles about the incredible India or about International Summer School in Norway.
This is very effective!!!!
Never read better article!
Thanks again!
This is an extremely well written and informative post. We have been using anchor links on all of the web sites we have designed, and as a web design agency in York and specialise in web site search engine optimization, find that the more information relevant to what we do the better it is is for every one concerned as we do nt have such an up hill battle to explain to our clients how this done.
Thank you
Your artcile was very informative. I did not know the importance of this area until I read this,. Thanks .
Well explained.
Im Agree With You 100 % Anchor text Very important
I like to use anchor text on my websites, but I try not to overdo it, good article
Your article is very useful.
Thanks
Marin
Good basic break down of anchor text and its utility , beyond what you have said it can be overdone and is not the end all means of moving up the serps.
I totally agree on the importance of anchor text, i always develop several combinations of text with various keywords included to use as anchor text. Its of course even better if you can get anchor text and a contexual link.
This is truly fantastic, I have to say I was not aware of how one could use title versus pure key words when I realised that to ensure we had the best <a href="http://www.3r.ie/" title="Search Engine Marketing Ireland"> SEO Marketing Service in Ireland</a></p> we could use multiple instances of key words in the title and also in the embedded html
So thank you – will see if it works, Peter