What is Anchor Text?
Anchor text is the visible hyperlinked text on the page. Let's take this example:
Please examine our escort site case studies for validation to evaluate our search engine optimization capabilities.
Here the words escorts sites case studies and search engine optimization are hyper linked to the hidden URLs http://www.seorank.com/seo-casestudies.htm and www.seorank.com respectively. The words within the hyperlink, SEO case studies and search engine optimization, are called the anchor text.
In a normally built site, anchor text is usually used to indicate the subject matter of the page that it links to. For example, the text SEO case studies indicates to visitors that they can expect to see content about case studies pertaining to SEO if they visit the link. This pattern of usage has been applied in search engine algorithms to enhance the relevance of the target or the landing page URL for the keywords appearing within the anchor text.
Anchor Text Enhances the Relevance of the Target Page
Please note that the keywords in anchor text enhance the relevance of the target page pertaining to the keywords used. While the relevance of the page containing the anchor text is also enhanced to some degree (because of relevant keywords appearing on that page), the real gainer is the target page URL. Use this knowledge to build the relevance of each page of your site, through optimized anchor text containing important keywords, relevant to the theme of such pages, from other pages of your site.
Search Engine Algorithms like Anchor Text.
The inclusion of important
keywords in the anchor text can make a big difference in the final ranking
of your site pages. All search engines that matter, give significant weight
to the anchor text on your pages. In fact Google even has a special operator:
allinanchor:keyword, which picks up text only from within the anchor
text of indexed pages. For example:
This further implies that Googles algorithm is configured to index anchor text as separate queryable data, thereby, making it evident, that Google considers it an important pointer to page relevance. Our internal research leads us to believe that weight given to anchor text has been raised recently in the Google algorithm. With these changes, it is possible to enhance your websites ranking by using the right keywords in anchor text.
It has also been studied that anchor text, whether from external, or internal pages, is important. It should therefore be ensured that significant attention is given to the inclusion of important keywords in your anchor text.
How to Optimize Anchor Text Within Your Site
Anchor text optimization
can be deployed throughout your site to enhance the relevance of most of
the web pages based on individual page content. You would be surprised,
how easy it is, to find suitable instances of hyperlinking structures to
make use of optimized anchor text.
When linking to internal
pages, it is better to use the format:
Read all about Anchor Text Optimization.
Instead of
Read all about Anchor Text Optimization here.
The above example shows us that you can leverage the hyperlinking of important keyword phrases instead of hyperlinking unrelated text wherever possible. It is always a great idea to restructure sentences if keywords dont fit in anchor text.
Using Keywords in Natural Text to Create Anchor Text
You can also locate (or insert)
important keyword phrases in your pages natural text and link it to relevant
target pages of your site. Consider the paragraph below: -
Search Engine Optimization
is an important part of any search engine marketing initiative. Some people
believe that submitting the site to search engines alone is sufficient
in getting top-10 ranking. This is not true. Search engine submission only
announces your sites existence to search engines. To get a good search
engine ranking, it is important that you carry out Title tag optimization,
Meta tags optimization and anchor text optimization of your website amongst
other SEO techniques. Youll need to optimize the visible text of your
site through SEO copywriting after an extensive keyword phrase research.
It is also important to boost your Google PageRank in order to get a good
website ranking. You can increase PageRank of your site by building your
sites link popularity through a link building campaign. A link exchange
campaign with good industry relevant sites is the simplest way to get several
incoming links to your site quickly. Remember, search engine positioning
is a powerful media for your website promotion.
Now notice below how the above text is reformatted where highly relevant keyword phrases have been converted into powerful anchor text. Each keyword phrase links to an important relevant section of the same site
Search Engine Optimization is an important part of any search engine marketing initiative. Some people believe that submitting the site to search engines alone is sufficient in getting top-10 ranking. This is not true. Search engine submission only announces your sites existence to search engines. To get a good search engine ranking, it is important that you carry out Title tag optimization, Meta tags optimization and anchor text optimization of your website amongst other SEO techniques. Youll need to optimize the visible text of your site through SEO copywriting after an extensive keyword phrase research. It is also important to boost your Google PageRank in order to get a good website ranking.You can increase PageRank of your site by building your sites link popularity through a link building campaign. A link exchange campaign with good industry relevant sites is the simplest way to get several incoming links to your site quickly. Remember, search engine positioning is a powerful media for your website promotion.
While the above example seems
like overkill, this is just to illustrate how you can accommodate your
important keyword phrases by carefully rewording the text of your web pages.
If you feel that the standard blue underlined hyperlinks appear ugly on
your website, then you can re-format its HTML markup code to change color
of the text and get rid of the underline without losing the power of the
anchor text.
You may not have noticed,
but the first paragraph also has the same keywords hyperlinked, but without
usual underlines. Bring your mouse over the keywords to notice your cursor
show up the hyperlink.
Optimizing Anchor Text of External Links
Keywords within the anchor text are equally useful from links pointing to your website. If you are pursuing or considering a link building campaign, put some serious thought in writing multiple options of the title and description of the link pointing to your website.
The title which is usually used as the hyper-linked text, should contain your important keywords. It is good to work with ten different options of title and description as it not only gives you more room to play with several keywords, but it also helps search engines give you a wider keyword coverage.
When soliciting external links, it is better to provide your own cut and paste HTML code. Webmasters like it when a ready to paste HTML code is available for them to use, to provide a link to your website.
Consider the following examples:
Website Promotion & Search
Engine Optimization
SEO Rank provides Website
promotion and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services for small websites
to large e-commerce sites requiring Search Engine Optimization & Ranking
http://www.seorank.com/seo-programs.htm
Google PageRank & Link
Popularity
Increase your Google PageRank
(PR) and your website's Link Popularity through focused link building.
Read more about the role of PageRank (PR) in final Search Engine Rankings.
http://www.seorank.com/google-pagerank.htm
Search Engine Promotion and
Link Building Services
SEO Rank offers Search Engine
Promotion, SEO, and Link Building services for small to large online businesses.
http://www.seorank.com/seo-services.htm
Search Engine Copywriting
Tips & Techniques
Search Engine Copywriting
services at SEORank - offering Search Engine Copywriting tips and copywriting
techniques for creating your Search Engine Friendly copy.
http://www.seorank.com/seo-copywriting-article.htm
PageRank & Link Popularity
Building Campaigns
Increase your site's PageRank
(PR) and Link Popularity by choosing from our Reciprocal Link Exchange
or Only Incoming Link Building Campaigns. Boost your site's Google PageRank
through a focused Link popularity building program.
http://www.seorank.com/link-building-costs-calculator.php
Notice how not only each of the title anchor text is optimized to contain important keyword phrases, but also that the description text varies to accommodate more keyword variation. Also, note that each variation has a different landing page URL to boost the relevance of your sites individual pages depending upon the theme of that page.
Links from external sites help your site to gain relevance for keywords mentioned in the anchor text which boosts your sites ranking. As the number of such inbound links increase, so will your sites ranking in SERPs.
Anchor text therefore comes on top of the checklist in your SEO initiatives.
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