Ah, anchor text…so important yet so misunderstood. Anchor text is simply another phrase for the label text for your link. Unknown to many bloggers, these words actually have an affect on how search engines perceive the link’s value. In fact, it’s well-known in SEO expert circles that anchor text is the top one or two factors that determine how you rank.
Often times, bloggers make anchor text mistakes without even knowing it. This comes into play the most when they are creating their own backlinks or pingbacks/trackbacks. Here’s an example:
Bad anchor text:
To learn more about what to do for your SEO, click here to see my previous post.
Good anchor text:
Read my previous post to learn more about how to improve traffic for your blog.
Both links bring you to the same article: Top 5 things to do for your SEO. The former is vague and would have no value to search engines while the latter is relevant and should improve search engine rankings.
In a nutshell, here’s how it works. If there were 1000 sites that all had anchor text about improving traffic which all lead to my Top 5 things post, then the article would move up in ranking. Of course, there are other variables but this part is an easy thing to do. You’re creating a link anyway so you might as well make it meaningful to improve the relevance of the destination, whether it’s your own backlink or someone else’s site.
Makes you want to go back and fix all those bad anchor texts used in your old posts, doesn’t it?
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sure that anchor text is very important however you should not all your bakclinks come from a unique anchor text you should vary because it will look suspicious
seo montreal’s last post…Why the On-page optimization is crucial for SEO
That’s true. Anchor text is very important from SEO point of view. If you place a keyword as the anchor text of the link, it would be good for the promotion of your website.
I find having a solid collection of keywords (5-15) and implementing them with the correct anchor text to be extremely useful.
Thanks for sharingdwq
Hmmm, Does Anchor text really take effect for SEO? I think it also depends on the way we use to convince the readers to click.
Knowing it’s important is only half the battle. making it “fit” a sentence so it still reads coherently is always my problem.
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You write the sentence first and then highlight the relevant text.
Yes, anchor is very important for improving a website’s visibility.
Free60s’s last post…Anchor text is important for SEO
I love effective use of anchored text. At first it takes a little time to get comfortable wording things in a way that you can effectively use anchored text, but it definitely pays off.
The one danger I have seen with anchored text is used the exact same phrase to the same page too many times. If too high of a percentage of your inbound links to a single page have the same exact anchored text, Google may recognize it as spam! Yikes.
I’m all about keyword clustering. Do a Google search for keyword clustering and check out the “powerful illustration” – the second or third link I believe. It is hotsauce!
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First, welcome back, Blake!
As for working keywords in, I still stick with the organic method. Although it might not be the most effective way (since one can obviously “work” the system a little by doing a little keyword research), I get almost all the way there without having to perform any due diligence.
In other words, I write the article and create links based on what’s written with no edits at all.
Hey Gabe Thanks to show me the right way. By the way can we create anchor tag for blog posts?
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Yes, that’s the point. You want to use them in your posts.
Im not quite sure in anchor text is so important. I think the link itsself is the important factor.
Actually the relationship between the anchor text and the link is what is key. A good practice is to use keywords as anchor text for your links. But you also want to mix it up a bit so the Google man does not give you the smack down. Here’s a good resource for more info:
http://back2dlab.com/Professional-Website-Design-Tips-Using-Anchor-Text-To-Enhance-SEO
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Nice blog – From an SEO perspective what is better:
A) Using anchor text in a comment link – Ways To Save Money ( but with a link)
B) Or using comluv to do the same
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Thank u for share, now i know about anchor text.
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Was always in doubt when comes to Anchor text. got a clearer picture now. Thanks Gabe!
Ps: Wonder when is your next update cos its been a while since your last post.
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Gabe, anchor text is important for SEO, but also important “natural” links without anchor text. It is obvious for Google etc. I prefere to make approx 50-60% anchor links.
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Google has consider anchor text with keyword is a ranking signal. So anchor text is play vital role in ranking. Main reason is why anchor text is used for is for the navigation purpose.
In my opinion? anchor text is neccessary, but not vital for the site. Google takes into account not only anchor but also links. I can say it is always 50 to 50 per cent.
Amazing Information .. i started maiking Backlinks of my Tech blog a few months back when i came to know about the comment backlinking.
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Anchor Text has major weightage in Search engine optimization. keyword insertion as anchor text is a very important issue to get good SERP for the keywords in search engines.
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anchor text is just a must for all seo campaigns..but still many people as you point out just don’t get it right
I think anchor text is very important and it could improve blog position in serp. But we must locate our anchor text in relevan article
External linking with relevant anchor text/alt tags, well tuned titles and relevant content onpage are the most important factors.
If you put less competitive keyword in anchor text then you can rank those keyword higher in search engine
true! however it is essential to use keywords bounded with other words so that searchengines would think these are natural backlinks
Yes, anchor is very important for improving a website’s visibility.
Main reason is why anchor text is used for is for the navigation purpose.
Im not quite sure in anchor text is so important. I think the link itsself is the important factor.
Anchor text is important because its shows google the link is relevant to the topic being discussed rather than just a link to a website on a different topic.
Out of curiosity, if the anchor text does not properly reflect the keyphrase which you are targeting, can it diminish the value of the links which DO properly reflect it?
For example, if google sees that I have 100 inbound links and 90 of them have anchor text that reads “Brooklyn Musical Director” and the other 10 say “Jon Barnes” could it diminish my appeal for “Brooklyn Musical Director” by any amount? So if I actually put my website in this comment post, then the anchor text to my website would be my name rather than the keyphrase I am targeting. Is it worth it just for the link (nofollow OR dofollow).
Thanks in advance,
Jon
seo is nothing but anchor text and rankings are nothing but anchor text that is the important and main thing
Very useful info this is, was searching what exactly is anchor text and keywords. this will surely be helpful for me!
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Nice writing. I searching various blogs for my Custom essay research.I belive your website should come up much higher in the search results than where it is showing up right now….
Anchor text is vital to determine on high rank. So I would make it that way on most of my back links.
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Anchor text is very necessary for SEO.
Wonder when is your next update cos its been a while since your last post.
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Thank you for offering
I also agree… anchor text very important for SEO optimation
I Always use keywords as an anchor text
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this is real nice post
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Other thing webmaster don’t know is the first link priority. It has been proven many times that only the first link on the page will count if there are many links to the same page.
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i think TEXT URL is great when defining for search engine
the true subject of the page. that is a factor in linked paged
authority in you website.
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Hey thank you for summing it up for us, I’m pretty much new to SEO but I’m getting the hang of it.
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