Anchor text is the visible and clickable text in a hyperlink that leads to another page or website. Often, it is different from regular text and appears underlined or highlighted. In SEO, anchor text plays an important role in determining the relevance and authority of a webpage.
When search engines crawl a webpage, they analyze the anchor text to understand what the linked page is about and how it relates to the topic being discussed on the linking page.
Thus, by using relevant and descriptive anchor text, website owners can improve their search engine rankings and drive more traffic to their sites.
Types of Anchor text.
When using anchor text in SEO, it is crucial that you’re aware of the different types of anchor text and how they can be used to maximize a website’s search engine rankings.
These are the several types of anchor text that SEO professionals use to optimize their web pages:
1. Exact-match: This type of anchor text includes the exact keyword or key phrase that the linked page is targeting. For example, if the target page is about “best hiking shoes,” the exact-match anchor text might be “best hiking shoes.” Best practices suggest using exact-match anchor texts to link to related pages on the same website
2. Partial-match: This type of anchor text includes a variation of the target keyword or key phrase, rather than the exact match. For example, if the target page is about “best hiking shoes,” the partial-match anchor text might be “top hiking boots.”
3. Branded: This anchor text uses the name of the brand or company as the hyperlink text. For example, if the target page is a product page for Nike shoes, the branded anchor text might be “Nike shoes.” This type of anchor text is often used to build brand recognition and increase trust on the website.
4. Naked link anchor text: This type uses the URL of the linked page as the hyperlink text. For example, if the target page is “https://example.com/best-hiking-shoes,” the naked link anchor text would be “https://example.com/best-hiking-shoes.”
5. Generic anchor text: It uses generic phrases like “click here,” “read more,” or “learn more” as the hyperlink text. Although they are used to draw attention to a specific page or website, generic anchors do not add much value to SEO because they are not descriptive.
Lastly, make sure to use a variety of anchor text types to make your backlink profile look natural to search engines. This is because overusing exact-match or partial-match anchor text can be seen as spammy and could harm your SEO efforts.
By following best practices for optimizing anchor text, you can improve your website’s visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) and attract more organic traffic to your site.
