WEB DESIGN · WEB DEVELOPMENT · WEB MARKETING

What exactly is anchor text?

Relevancy is key to all search engines. When users search for something on a search engine, they expect to find a website that matches precisely what they are looking for. Search engines use mathematical calculations to determine the perceived relevancy of a website such as Google’s algorithm (Google has over 200 and the majority are kept secret). Therefore, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) should be performed with relevancy as the key factor. One way that search engines are helping users to find more relevant information is through algorithms that factor in anchor text.

Anchor text can also be referred to as anchor links or link text. As you can see, I have created anchor text in the paragraph above with the description “Google’s algorithm”. Though I could have hyperlinked the description again within the previous sentence, the search engine will only recognize the first time the page is linked regardless of the anchor text description. If you click on the anchor text described as “Google’s algorithm”, it will take you to the webpage URL: “http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-googles-rankings-algorithm-has-changed-over-time-“. After reviewing the website you will see that the linked or landing page and anchor text description are relevant to each other. That is one factor that creates relevant and SEO friendly anchor text. Another factor to consider is the landing page’s relevancy to your own page. When a search engine crawls through a website’s code and text it will check the relevancy of the landing page that was linked as well as your own page. If they are considered a match, then the search engine rankings for those sites will increase. Remember that keywords in the description of the anchor text are bound to similar rules as search keywords. For example: teaching, teacher and teach are seen as similar by Google.

Another common mistake when building anchor links is to use the url or a variation of the url as the actual anchor text. This seems to be a widespread practice and unfortunately it significantly reduces the effectiveness of your anchor text.

The example below shows an example of a url being used as anchor text.

For more info on super widgets please visit:
 our-site.com

Unless your brand is your most effective keyword for example, Pepsi or Kleenex, then a much more effective approach is to use keywords as your anchor text.

Get more info on super widgets.

The most important thing to keep in mind as an SEO, blogger, developer or anybody that creates and edits information on the internet is to KEEP IT RELEVANT. Though we may not know the precise mathematical equations of Google, Yahoo or Bing, it is clear that these search engines want to provide users with the most useful information for a given keyword. Using anchor text properly can help SEO’s increase a client’s search rankings, help search engines improve search relevancy and create a user-friendly experience.