Anchor text is the visible text of a hyperlink (Link that is underlined). Anchor text is basically the text or words used to describe the link. A hyperlink may go to another site, another place on the same page, another page on the same site and it may open up a document for you to view. For example, you can visit “my web site” (this is labeled wrong- will explain later)…
Relevance
Keywords need to be used in anchor text to increase the relevance of the target page relating to the keywords used. For example, I have a link on my home page- SEO Copywriting. The search engines (especially Google) are going to look at the text of the link and then go to the page and see if the text relates to the page the link leads to. If they go to my SEO Copywriting page they will see a lot of information about SEO Copywriting- as you can see the anchor text is relevant to the page.
Search Engine Optimization
Including keywords in your anchor text you will increase your chances of a higher ranking with the search engines. Google pays close attention to the words used in the hyperlink (Anchor Text). If you use keywords or keyword phrases in your anchor text Google’s algorithms will pick up on it and if they determine that the link description is relevant to the page or document the link leads to, your ranking can increase. It is important to try and label your links effectively for optimization purposes.
Saying “Click Here” will not help you. Remember up above when you saw “my web site” and I said the link was labeled wrong? Well, if you click on the link you will see my web site, but Google will not consider the words used to describe the link as relevant.
You will not find the phrase “my web site” on that web site. Therefore it is not relevant. Just remember that you are basically describing the link using keywords that are relevant and can help you with optimization.
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Anchor texts are very important if your target is to place your website on top of search engine with specific keywords. For me, it’s better to use same anchor texts every time you advertise in forums, message groups, and in link exchange sites. The more that anchor text appear, the bigger the chance you get high SERP.
Very useful article. Hope to read more on SEO in near future.
If you could help me, my site had very good ranking in google and yahoo. But it started falling down from its position after some months. What should I do?
Thanks for the tips. I can see now that anchor text has strong validity from reading many articles.
Your explanation on Anchor Text is really excellent and easy to understand. Please visit my website and kindly advise what best Keywords I should use for my anchor text or hyperlink.
Thanks again for your clear discription.