The Meaning of Anchor Text and How to Use Anchors In Your SEO Strategy

What Is Anchor Text?

SEO optimisation based on gaining links from other websites. Anchors used have direct impact on the rank of the site promoted.

First of all, let’s gain insight into the basic terminology.

An anchor is a text part of the link which is observed by the user of the website (is placed between the tags …). Having activated it, the visitor will come to the determined web resource. In HTML anchor text should be written in the next way:

So, what is an anchor text? It is a clickable phrase which consists of keywords or sentence which dwell directly on the subject matter of the website. That is how even before the actual visit to the web resource the user learns what kind of business the site has. Nevertheless, he cannot see the full web address of a site. It is hidden “under the text” which is highlighted differently in comparison with the main part of the article.

Anchor links are the keywords which lead to the content of the determined site. They are used to replace some simple backlinks for the thematic site with some part of the text which is issue-related.

What Do We Use Anchor Links For And What Is Their Influence?

The clickable text which is an anchor link has an influence on the rank of the site in the SERP offered by search systems because it boosts the dynamic weight of the page to which it leads.

Dynamic weight is an anchor web-ranking. It is transmitted by active hyperlink and directly depends on the anchor: the more relevant it is, the more significant dynamic weight is transmitted by the link. That is to say, dynamic weight completely hinges upon the text in an anchor. The more obvious is the relation of text and search request, the more significant is the dynamic weight of link. The link should lead user to that very page which is promoted.

The search robots always take such hyperlinks into consideration. That is why when buying them, you must properly select anchor text as it has a direct influence on the web-ranking performed by search system. Thus, a wisely chosen phrase helps the website to get in the TOP list of search systems. It works!

Adding hyperlinks to the resource is an important step in the whole process of optimisation in which efficiency depends on the text chosen for them to a great extent. Link formation and optimisation are two stages of site promotion that cannot be neglected!

These type of anchors are also of great use for the inner interlinking as they serve joint elements for the pages of the same web resource. They are most helpful on many levels: they help a user to find the needed pages of the website; because of them, searching bots can index pages of the second or even higher level of nesting depth; they simplify the task for a webmaster to divide the weight within the web resource.

Types Of Anchor Text. SEO Examples

Ascertain that you include a unique anchor. Identical anchor text fuses anchor which lowers the significance of the link in whole. Do your best to overcome it!

The types of anchors you can come across:

• Exact match anchors. This type is represented by the distinct search requests without any additional words being inserted into the text of a link (for example, “anchor link”).
• Partial match anchors. Apart from the direct search request, the anchors of this type contain some additional text (partial anchor text example: “what is an anchor”).
• Branded anchors. This type of anchors include your brand name and all it variations: “mybrand.com, mybrand, http://mybrand.com” etc.
• Image anchors. You can hyperlink images as well. Such links doesn’t have anchor text—but there’s an alt tags. The alt tag describes what that image is about.
• Generic anchor text. By “generic” here all phrases like “click here” or “visit website” or even something which is completely unrelated to final link destination.

When striving for optimisation of your web resource, do not focus on one well-loved type even if it brings good results. Use the variety! To make your anchors more variable, break the main search request by synonyms and epithets.

What Types Of Text Anchors Are Better For Promotion And Why?

There is no clear-cut answer to the question about the optimal choice of anchor types for website promotion. You can try to investigate the anchor choice of the competing web resources. Conduct a kind of experiment to find the most efficient variant. The truth is that for efficient website promotion you need to use both direct and partial anchor links.

One more thing to take into account is that anchors should also be applied to enable simplified shift between the pages of the same web resource. Quite a useful tip! Thus, by using direct and partial anchors, you will share static weight with other pages of your site.

Where To Place An Anchor Link?

Now that you have the answer to the question “what is an anchor link”, it’s high time to learn: text of the link is not suitable for any place. When such opportunities are excluded, you will need to include a simple original link to your resource.

This is where you can use anchor links:

• Site catalogs. As a rule, site catalogs ask for information related to the name and address of the resource which further will become a link to your resource.
• Blog comments. The majority of blogs permit publications of the site address and the text which is a presentation of your link under your comments.
• Link exchange. When sharing the links with other users you include title, address, and description where title is the text of an anchor which leads the user to the determined resource.

Where to choose anchor links?

There exist several approaches for the formation of anchor links, among which the most widely used are the following:

• Automatic link building. You can find a great many of specialized services and nets for independent site promotion. Using these resources, you can select anchors for your website. To get the result, you are to include your keywords and name of resource in the base and leave the rest of the work for generators.
• Independent anchor formation or ordering from a copywriter. Of course, there is always an opportunity to try to find the best appropriate anchor text yourself, but just as well you can redirect this part of site promotion to a copywriter. Do you best to describe technical requirements for this task! On the Web, you will find a lot of platforms where you can order quality content for your website.
• Anchor creation based on the replication of search requests from other websites related to your topic. The algorithm is very simple. You need to insert your search request in the search bar, visit the resources in the TOP, find the sentences including the needed request and take an example to create your own one.

What is “no anchor” link?

These are the type of links which contain no keyword.
To this type belong:

The site address (very often they are used to shift to the home page of the Internet resource)
For example:

Alternative text is different from the keywords. Such links contain words like “here”, “read also”, and so on. For example:

How can no anchor links be useful?

Such links are often used to break the link mass of the website. Not long ago, Google announced that, as a rule, anchor links were treated as commercial and from that moment they would be taken into account less seriously. On the other hand, there is no use trying to promote the web resource with the help of no anchor links only. Just as well, you should not fully rely on those of text type.

No anchor links provide:

• long-lasting efficiency;
• safety due to naturalness;
• boosts the trustworthiness of the resource.

The link mass must consist of anchor text links and those containing none. It is also highly recommended to include different anchors. Of course, it is time-consuming and meticulous work, but the result is worth your time and efforts. Check our complete Backlinks Guide for more tactics.

How to get no anchor links free of charge?

You can cope with it through your own efforts, but you need to devote your time to get the result. How can one do it? You should surf the Web leaving links to the pages of your site on different web resources. Use social networks, blogs, forums, and other platforms.

The second approach is more natural and therefore more advisable. According to it, users leave links to your resource on other websites, like blogs, forums, social networks. Such links have the most long-lasting effect as they are “live”, and will attract more visitors enabling further promotion. What do you need for this to happen? The main requirement is unique and engaging content. If the material on your website is useful for users, soon your website will be recognised by a wide audience, and the number of both anchor text links and those of no anchor type promoting your site will grow rapidly (and naturally, which is of great importance!).