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Anchor Text

Last updated: Sep 13, 2022

https://cmlabs.co/en-gb/seo-terms/anchor-text

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Anchor Text is a clickable text in a hyperlink used to connect one page to the other pages. It is normally marked with blue color on the text that has an anchor text.

Anchor text that is easy to use for SEO is concise and relevant to the addressed page. Search engines use external anchor text to attract traffics to web pages. If many web pages use phrases that link to specific pages that are relevant to what the user is looking for, that page can rank well.

Why is Anchor Text Important?

To find out the information inside the website, Google relies on words or phrases that contain links to a website. This component participates in increasing rankings on search engines. If the content is relevant to what users are looking for, the ranking will increase as well.

Types of Anchor Text

1. Exact Match
In its literal definition, an Exact match is a match that exactly defines the keywords that reflect the linked page.
For example: "create a link" that connects to the page about creating a link.

2. Partial Match
Partial Match is the text that includes keyword variations on the linked page.
For example: "the strategy of creating link" that connects to the page about creating the link.

3. Phrase Match
The phrase that contains the link is the keyword you want to improve.
For instance: Yoast SEO is one of my favorite SEO tools.

4. Branded
This type uses the brand name to provide a link.
For example: "cmlabs" connects to CMLABS website.

5. Naked Link
Anchor text that uses the original URL without removing any attributes.

For example, www.example.com is a naked link.

6. Generic
A general word or phrase such as used as an anchor text. "Click here" is a general phrase that is usually used as an anchor text.

7. Images
Whenever an image is linked, Google will use the text contained in the image's alt attribute as the linked word or phrase.

SEO Friendly Anchor Text

1. Concise

While there's no specific length limit, try to keep it as short as possible. Ultimately, the term chosen to contain a link must consider two main factors:

What is the most concise and accurate way to describe the linked page?
What are words or phrases that attract users to click the link?

2. Relevant to the target page

The most relevant link can increase the rank possibility of page A and page B for questions related to the searched topics. Link relevance is a natural phenomenon that occurs when users link to content on another web. It is determined by:

Topics of the resource page
Anchor text content on the resource page

3. Keyword Density is low

With the Penguin algorithm update, Google is starting to look at keywords that contain a link. However, SEO may get better results by striving for a more natural range of phrases.

Don't overdo it with internal links that have keywords in them. If too many links to a page use the word containing the same link, Google may sense spammy behavior.

4. Use synonyms of the keyword

Using synonyms of the keyword will avoid duplication of the keyword. Using LSI on Google (Latent Semantic Indexing) can detect the synonym of the used keyword.