Have You Ever Thought of Anchor Text?

The use of anchor text is nothing new, but the rules as to what can appear in it have certainly changed over the years. As a result, a number of websites are falling foul of these changes leading to their websites being punished and being sent tumbling down the results pages practically overnight.

That in itself is soul destroying for the owner of the website. On most occasions, there is even an inability to understand what went wrong with them frantically searching for an answer.

Now, we don’t want that to happen to you as the stress it causes is huge. So, how can you avoid it? Well, the answer is so much easier than you perhaps thought as it is all to do with the information that you have included in your anchor text.

What is Anchor Text?

Let’s kick things off by looking at what anchor text is according to the laws of SEO. The simple explanation is that it is the text that is visible in what is actually a hyperlink to another page of the website, or another website entirely.

In other words, you can often see them as the words will be blue to mark them out as being different from the rest of the text, or else nobody would click on them.

But, here’s the thing. There is a need for you to be aware of the things that you can and cannot put on these links before Google starts to complain and punish your website for breaking some of the rules that you are supposed to follow.

Why it is Important for Search Engines.

So, why is this text so important for the search engines? Surely the overall content is more important to them?

Well, this is not about determining what is more important. Instead, it’s about doing things in the way that is going to be most beneficial to you and your website.

With anchor text, the search engines use it to determine what your website is all about. They also use it to determine how people view your website, and as you are in control of the text that is used for these links, it does mean that you have a lot of power in your hands even though you may not have previously been aware of it.

What happens is that other websites that may want to link to you will view these links, so you have to make sure that they are relevant, useful, and descriptive. These links can determine the relevance factor of a page, and if your content is then regarded in this way, then that can only be a good thing for your ranking.

Things to Avoid.

We have given a brief description of why this anchor text is so important, but there is still a need for us to guide you away from making various mistakes that could hamper the way in which your website is viewed.

The first thing to avoid is making the anchor text too keyword heavy. This is hated by Google, and they will treat it in such a way that you know this is something to be avoided at all costs.

The text should also be succinct. Long and rambling anchor text is also frowned upon, so keep things as short as possible and you will be viewed in a far more favorable light as a result.

Linking to the wrong page is another thing to avoid. You cannot mislead people by having anchor text that says one thing, which they then expect to find, and yet you then send them elsewhere. This is similar to a form of entrapment, and you will also have your website punished because of this, so don’t do it at any point.

You should also avoid having too many of these anchor texts on the one page. This comes across as something similar to spamming, and it changes the impression that people have of your website, which is something that you just do not want to happen. Limit yourself to only using them when it is correct to do so and where it actually adds something to the experience of the individual that is visiting your website.

Anchor text is here to stay, but you cannot just use it in any way that you want. Google do have a firm understanding of what it is that they are looking for with this, so you have to make sure that you fall within those parameters, or you will have to deal with your punishment.

Use them wisely to enhance the experience that people have when they visit your website. Never overdo it, or you will turn people away, and who wants that to happen with their site?