Anchor Text:A Key Attribute for Search Engine Optimization
In one of my last post I described the importance of deeplinking in search engine optimization. Describing which I briefly described the Importance of anchor texts there. Anchor text & deeplinking go hand in hand. In this post I will describe the anchor text in a more elaborated way.
What is an Anchor Text?
As stated in the previous article, an anchor text is the word or set of words that are used to hyperlink a particular url in order to create a deeplink or simply a link. This works as an introduction to the containing link.
Why is it Important for Search Engines?
All the major(and minor) search engines have a common aim of providing relevant searches based on the keywords that an user puts in for a search. To Do this they compare those set of keywords with the keywords found related to your(or all other indexed urls). The more similar they are the higher the rank they get. Well the “similar” term used here strictly does not mean literally. This has some other parameters too. Those are like more dofollow backlinks, keyword density etc etc.
Lets go with an example……
“Tech Zoom In – Zoom Into Blogging”
Here the set of words Tech Zoom In is an anchor text which contains the links to this blog’s homepage. Suppose a page with url www.techzoomin.com/xyz.html contains this part of text in the content. So when a search bot crawls this page it gets an impression that the link contained in that clickable word is related to tech, technology, zoom in or as a whole tech zoom in. So how do u gain from this, let us see
- To your readers the anchor text serves as an introduction to the page they are going to visit by clicking this link.
- And the search bots gets you indexed for the keywords tech, technology, zoom in or as a whole tech zoom in. This will grow your authority and rank in the SERPs(Search Engine Resulting Pages) for these keywords.
On the contrary, if we use an anchor text somewhat like this
“For more blogging tips & info – Visit Us”
It may serve well to your readers but it will not for those search bots that much.
Note: I used the text that much because there are some text(For more blogging tips & info) in the vicinity of the anchor text. The search bots nowadays also takes this into context for better indexing. Though this is not very well to rely upon.
So how to choose a perfect Anchor Text ……
We all know that keywords or keyword phrases are the most important criteria to get highly ranked in the SERPs.This anchor texts are also a good way to target keywords. Now let me explain with an example on how to select a proper anchor text.
Let us pretend that you have an old post named “Introduction to SEO Basics”. Now you are planning to create a new post named “On page SEO techniques”. In this new article, if you are trying to deeplink the older post mentioned earlier then what should be the proper anchor text for it ???
If you are practicing keyword targeting, then let us suppose you have targeted the older post with the keyword phrase “SEO Basics”. In that case the most appropriate anchor text for deeplinking the post “Introduction to SEO Basics” will be SEO Basics. This way you can increase your authority for the keyword phrase “SEO Basics”.
And if you are not practicing keyword targeting, then my first suggestion is to start practicing right now. Well for now the most appropriate anchor text in this case would be probably the meta title and if you can’t find what this is simply the post title(Introduction to SEO Basics) will do.
If you are planning to buy one way backlinks from other sites with high page rank then make sure to choose the proper anchor text.
Well on an ending note I must ask you all for donating some valuable thoughts to this post via the Comment form.
Hope you found it useful. Happy Blogging!!
I always use Anchor Text. When I first started blogging I used to Do the SEO mistake of not using it but not anymore.
Great you found/realized it finally
I started my Blogging/SEO Experiments with alt/title, anchor text, key word etc.
I am still learning about what proper anchor text that i must use for deep linking. It is important part of SEO.
Just search through some high paid keywords and Do that
How about choosing keywords with high competition value? Are these practical to use for your anchor tags? I have an impression that even if you Do, your page won’t show up on Google because, sites with highest page rank goes first. Am i right?
Great post again. I didn’t understand the Importance of anchor links but then someone told me and I used it.
Anyway using it right
Keep rocking dude..!
Now I know the Importance of Anchor Text for SEO. I guess I should start looking into this SEO method. I found a lot of SEO articles in your blog and it’s useful to me. Thanks.
Great you loved my blog. Thanks a lot dude..Just keep in touch and keep rocking..!
SE crawler recognizes anchor text with “click here” or something else like that as natural backlink.
Anchor can be anything
i don’t think click here is only the recognized one.
I mean, we don’t have to force adding anchor with targeted keyword.
Depends on people to people
Ha ofcourse we don’t have to add anchor text with targetted keyword, but if you dont Do that your missing out on way to SEO your website.
Nice Tip Lax, expecting more from you.
Now that you mentioned anchor texts, I’ll have to go on saying that interlinking your posts through anchor texts is a really great method of improving your SEO
Great that you agreed with me
Thanks for taking time to Comment here dude..!
Sometimes I get crazy with the anchor text and other times I don’t really care, I guess it’s the Bi-Polar in me.
Hmm lol
I think time drive you different moods 
I think I almost like you John..It depends on my mood..Sometimes I care about it sometimes I don’t care anymore..
I always take care of it
Great practice you’re making out then. Good
I am learning about anchor text, useful post waiting for more post like this on TZI,
The flow continuous Dude..Hope to see you all with me always.
I feel beginners should be aware of it because i have seen in many new blog ..With anchor text like “click me” , “click here” and so ..Which is not a good practice!
Yes thats true..But people will learn slowly with exp
Me too same like agent 001. At first I never knew about anchor text. Then I came to know for web design purpose like “read more” and later on I came to know about its SEO Importance.
Thanks
Good that you learned it.. Actually its good to learn while working on live..Just reading can’t make effective
[...] Add keyword rich anchor text on a targeted page within your site so you can rank better for that [...]
I recommend “title” in all the href’s, while mouse overing the link showing a text force the user to click it.
Great thing dude..The anchor should force user to click on this. That a good idea and should follow
Many people forget about this thing! Proper anchor text helps in getting good SE positions for your keywords and also good traffic.
Yes, good that we realized now
Very frankly speaking, it is more important to follow it rather than just realizing it. People often tend to use their name in the Comment Name section, rather than using the Blog name or the Keywords.
Also excessive keyword spamming leads to Google penalty.
Thats right, following it is important. In my early days of blogging, I usually used to forget.
Using Keywords in Comment is good Idea but you have to mostly comment on blog with same niche as yours. I actually Do not like using keywords.
Yeh, I’ve noticed the insignificance of keywords as of late, and I’m beginning to feel like they’re a waste of time. I’ve never even though about using keywords in comments though. How useful is that?
I believe that Matt Cutts did explain about this in his blog or Google Webmaster Central, using anchor text for the in post link does help the search engine ranking for the keyword rather than using “Click Here” wording.
I’ve stopped doing this for months in my blog after I got to know that “Click Here” wording for the link didn’t look friendly than a keyword.
Well said Lax!
OHh Great thanks for sharing Matt’s saying Lee.. Thanks a lot for helping bloggers here.
“Click Here” is not good for SEO but it has also its own use.
“Click here” is a very simple thing and good for making people (new to Internet) click on it. It is good for Sales Pages etc.
I also never use the ‘click here’method as it doesn’t help your search engine rankings. Also not many blogs allow you to place keywords or anchor texts anymore.
So the best place to place your anchor texts are probably article directories as you can place your anchor text in the resource box or of course get a backlink on a high Google PR blog or website.
I know anchor text are a imporent factor, but does anyone know, how importent Google considers these?
now i know anchor text..ill try to Do it in my next next posts.
well describe i easily understand and get my point about anchor text
I usually use my keywords as my anchor texts.It helps me in Search engine optimization and to get indexed by them easily !
[...] Anchor Text a Key Attribute in SEO [...]
Well i was not aware about this fact, from now onwards i will keep this thing in mind, it can really serve to be a very good SEO. Thanks for sharing it.
very well explained, i havent tried proper inter linking so seriously yet but am sure by doing this with keeping SEO in mind then it would surely help our blog traffic increase
My new knowledge about SEO..Thanks LAX..your explanation is very clear…
Here I want to discuss my own blog SEO experience.
I am targeting for getting rank for keyword “legitimate work at home jobs”, after making lots of Comment on dofollow blog by putting the keyword as a name I get rank for that keyword. But with this I also get rank for another keyword that is “google work at home affiliate”, Now I am getting much traffic from the next keyword.
Anchor text matter heavily for get rank.
Anchor Text is the key element in helping a SEO bot finds it way to your website!