For those who don’t know, an anchor text is the clickable text of the link. It is an essential part of SEO because whatever text you add as anchor text will definitely make or break your website’s ranking. Whether you are writing an anchor text for internal links or external links, you have to give it a careful thought.

Below, you will know what anchor text is and how to add them. You will also know what the different types are.

Student typing texts using a laptop keyboard

Anchor Text 101

As mentioned earlier, an anchor text is the text part of a link. Usually, this text will be highlighted in blue to make sure that the users will visibly see that the text is clickable. In HTML, the anchor text is enclosed in an anchor tag.

For the code, you will need the <a href> and </a>. This is how you will write a link accompanied with an anchor text:

<a href=”https://www.phoenixsearchengineoptimization.com”>This is example of an anchor text. </a>

The Anchor Text in Google Search

If you notice carefully the search results, it is filled with anchor text. Each website link listed in the Google search results have an appropriate anchor text. The page title is what Google uses as the website’s anchor text. Hence, the anchor text is both important to search engines and users. For one, the users can tell what the website is about through its anchor text.

An anchor text can redirect users to another page with the same website (internal linking) or to another totally different website (external linking). Either way, you need to add a useful anchor text to guide the users in going to page they want.

What Are the Types of Anchor Text?

Basically, here are the most common type people used when creating anchor texts:

Brand – you can use your brand name as the anchor text of a link. Example: Phoenix Search Engine Optimization
Website name – it could also be the domain name. Example: phoenixsearchengineoptimization.com
Link – using the link of the page will do. Example: https://www.phoenixsearchengineoptimization.com/googles-john-mueller-shared-2-tips-in-enhancing-content/
Generic texts – this is the most common anchor texts used by many. Examples: click here, learn more, or click here
Keywords – people also use relevant keywords as anchor texts. Example: “In a Google Webmasters video, John Mueller shared 2 tips in improving content.”
Title – if you can’t think of any, then the title could be used as the anchor text. Example: The 7 Reasons Why Migrations Fail

Conclusion

In the end, anchor text may seem irrelevant. However, in the grand scheme of things, it is important especially for SEO. The anchor text can guide the search engines and the users to the right direction. If you don’t showcase it properly, confusion will arise. When user do not understand what they are reading, chances are they will leave your website. So, keep your anchor texts useful to the readers. Choose words that are short and understandabe to many. I will link the best practices to apply when generating anchor texts.

Next? 4 Best Practices to Use when Adding Anchor Texts

SOURCE: (1)