Anchor Text: Best Practices

Anchor text is the clickable part of the hyperlink. It usually serves as an indication of what the link is about. Anchor text should be a significant part of your SEO strategy – it can increase the validity of your efforts to rank higher on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) and more importantly, failing to modify your anchor text practices may get your website penalized by Google, if Google’s Penguin determines you have over optimized the anchor text. Described below are three ways to optimize your anchor text strategy for SEO.

1. Relevancy

Relevancy is one of the backbones of a good SEO strategy. Therefore, ensuring relevancy in your anchor texts being considered one of the best practices comes as no surprise. The content of the link must match its description in the anchor text. If it fails to do so, Google will be able to read it immediately and the particular site page may be penalized. It is a good idea to perform anchor text checks frequently on your website to ensure that the anchor text matches the content of the link.

2. Variation

There are various types of anchor texts. Avoid using the same anchor text for every link. Otherwise, Google’s spam filter may detect it as spam and penalize your site. To avoid over optimizing the use of a particular type of anchor text, keep a record of all anchor text used within your site and determine the ratio for the usage of the types of anchor text. Ensure that the anchor text fits with the flow of the content. If the anchor text is used organically, the ratio of usage will most likely indicate that.

3. Test and track your anchor texts

Tracking anchor text will help determine their impact on your site’s SEO over time. You may choose to use tools such as Anchor Text Categorizer Tool by Linkio or Moz anchor text tool. If you see a variety of anchor texts that help your overall SEO, then your SEO strategy for anchor texts is right.