We all know the importance of ranking in the top search results of Google. But did you know that 91% of websites never attract organic traffic because they don’t have backlinks?
This clearly shows how important backlinks are when you’re working on your SEO strategy. By building some solid backlinks for your website, you can establish it as a trusted source of information in the eyes of Google and build credibility for your business.
When that happens, finding a spot in the top search results of Google becomes a lot easier. Now you must be thinking, why are we discussing backlinks when the title clearly is about optimizing your anchor texts for SEO.
Well, that’s because of the direct relation of backlinks with anchor text. Anchor texts are those words in your posts that you use to link out to or into your website. Having the correct anchor text is extremely important for your SERP rankings. And that’s where knowing how to optimize your anchor text becomes important.
In this post, we’ll tell you how to optimize your anchor text for SEO and rank in the top search results. But before that, let’s quickly understand the importance of anchor texts.
Importance of Anchor Text for SEO
There are two important roles of the anchor text. The first one is to provide context to the readers, and the second is to offer context to Google. By looking at the anchor text, readers get to know what to expect on the other side of the text. Based on that, the user may choose to click on or ignore the text.
Getting your anchor text right can help you get more clicks on your links. When a user finds the text relevant, they are more drawn toward clicking on it.
It does the same for search engines as well. Your anchor text tells Google what the web page is about. Search engines also use these anchor texts to rank and index web pages. So having the right text becomes extremely important for your link-building strategy.
If you’re not sure how to optimize your anchor texts for the best results, here are a few ways to do it. So let’s check them out.
1. Create Relevant Anchor Texts
One of the major ranking factors of Google is to satisfy the search intent of its users. It never wants to create a bad user experience by providing irrelevant responses to queries. That’s why always make sure that your anchor texts are relevant to the topics.
In other words, the phrases or words you use to link out or link into your website should consist of words that closely match the topic of your embedded link.
So, for example, say you’re creating a post on learning new photography skills. To make it more relevant for your users, you might want to link it to a post that helps readers learn about tools to upgrade their photography skills. But in doing so, you need to carefully pick the anchor text through which you’ll link back to that post.
But instead of doing that, if you choose to link to a web page that’s selling, say, a beauty product, then Google will consider you as manipulative and might even consider penalizing you.
2. Consider the Surrounding Text
The next important tip to consider when optimizing your anchor text for SEO is the type of texts or words that surround your anchor text. Marketers believe that a lot of times, the text around your anchor text also impacts whether or not it will be clicked by the users.
For example, instead of simply using words or phrases like ‘Click Here’, it can be a lot more effective if you write something like ‘Click Here to learn more about editing tools to make your photographs stand out.
While you might get a few clicks in the first case, the second sounds more promising because it reaffirms what it has to offer to the user. This helps them understand what exactly they will gain from clicking on the link. So it encourages them to take action right away.
Google’s recent BERT update mentioned that it’s working towards making human language more favorable. Humans don’t simply read the anchor texts to decide whether or not to click on them. Search bots are not using the same strategy now. So it also considers the surrounding texts of the anchor and scans them for context before considering the anchor text.
3.Use Variation
If you’re someone who keeps using the same anchor text over and over again, it’s time to change your strategy. Using the same anchor text repeatedly might turn on Google’s spam filter. Now you might be thinking that using brand names can be a good option. It is definitely a good practice but to be truthful; the best approach is to always use variations.
This helps you use a more natural linking strategy, which in turn, helps you boost your visibility in search results. So in creating variations for your anchor text, keep in mind not to overuse or underuse your main keyword. You should also consider mixing brand names and using keyword synonyms and generic terms like click here, download, etc., while creating backlinks in a post. This will help you create the variation you’re looking for and will definitely help you get the desired results.
Optimizing your anchor text might not be something that you have pondered upon before. But it’s important to know that doing that can instantly enhance your SEO and help you boost your visibility.
