How To Optimize Anchor Text For SEO

Brands have been hit hard by Penguin in the past, and there’s always the chance it could strike again. Knowing the various types of anchor text will help you create a well-rounded arsenal to use in your content and on your website. As long as you keep your anchors contextually relevant, they will send a positive signal to Google’s crawlers. 

Tip #1: Stay On Topic

The unfortunate truth is that there’s a lot of misconception about what good anchor text is.

However, when it comes to SEO in your linking practices, relevancy is high on the list for being ranked by Google. 

They don’t want to get a bad reputation from providing users with irrelevant responses to queries.

That means your anchor text should consist of words and phrases that closely match the topic of your embedded link.

Say, for example, you run a company that offers content marketing services to small businesses. 

If you want visitors to your site to navigate to a blog post you created about the importance of content, you would need to add a link. In that link, you need to select a word or phrase as your anchor text that is related to the content on your blog. Otherwise, Google will see that hyperlink as manipulative and potentially penalize your site.

Here’s an example of what that could look like in your content:

In the image above, I’ve used the anchor text “how to structure your URLs.”

As long as you try to keep at least some of your anchor texts relevant, Google will have an easier time categorizing your content and ranking you accordingly.

Tip #2: Always Incorporate Variation

If you always want an exact match, Google’s spam filter will go off and you’ll take a hit.

If you always only link to brand names, you’ll probably have a similar effect.

When it comes to creating a strategy for anchor texts that help SEO, I’ve found that using your own unique and varied approach is best.

That flies in the face of the typical advice you see that focuses on which anchor texts you should use based on certain ratios.

For a home page, you’d be best inclined to use 5% exact match, 20% phrase match, and 10% key phrases.

Instead, you should focus on creating a more natural distribution for your anchor text scheme.

All of these variations rely on very natural language and display a clear intent to both search engines and your user.

By focusing on experimentation and natural language in your anchor texts, you’re more likely to see better results in the long run.

Tip #3: Test and Track Your Anchor Texts

Tracking how you use anchor texts on your site will take a bit of effort, but it’s the only way to test how they affect your SEO over time.

To start tracking the variety of anchor texts you use, I recommend using the Anchor Text Categorizer Tool by Linkio.

This tool will ask you to fill in various details about your content, including the URL, page title, brand name, and keywords.

Another good idea is to start using Semrush to keep tabs on what types of anchor texts link to your site. To find this info, you’ll need to navigate to the Backlinks tab of the Semrush dashboard.

Now you can see which terms are being used by other brands when they link to your site.

Remember that anchor texts are largely used by Google as a signal of content relevancy and domain authority, so these anchor texts are vital to your SEO.