When someone asks us what exactly is SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), and if it is still relevant, we always begin from what SEO earlier was. This is because it usually is an evolution, one that mirrors how search engines algorithms evolved. 

Early SEO was relatively simple – dumping keywords even if they seemed spammy, and creating thousands of backlinks. Chances are it even worked in improving your website’s SERP. However, as Google’s algo got cleverer, these no longer help. Google’s algorithms have been increasingly modelled to counter black hat SEO practices. Do not get us wrong. Keywords do matter, backlinks are still relevant, but they have just gotten more sophisticated says a leading Social Media Marketing Services Company in Hyderabad.

One often overlooked but useful part of SEO is anchor text.

What is anchor text?

You are already pretty familiar with the concept of Anchor text. It is the clickable text in a document, on a webpage or anywhere that points you to a URL, takes you to a webpage.

Suppose you visit a Wikipedia page on the Hubble telescope. It has a lot of jargon that appears as hyperlinks, which in case you want to read about, all you have to do is hover or click the word. This is what is known as Anchor text.

In the SEO world, it helps that the anchor text is relevant to the content on the webpage. 

Optimising anchor text:

Anchor text can be a double edged sword. While relevant ones improve SEO, irrelevant ones can also result in reducing your score or even a Google penalty!

How Google views anchor text:

The Bert algo of 2019, and subsequent Core updates from Google have increasingly focussed on content relevance, and penalise poorly written content. And this meant, anchor texts became an easy way to find website reliability, and help Google track if a website is heavily SEO dependant to rank instead of organic content.

Also remember this applies to both backlinks and internal links that direct to other pages.

Using Anchor Text in Your SEO Strategy

Now that you have a fair idea of how search engines view and understand anchor texts, you should consider using it to your advantage.

Stay relevant: A huge misconception around anchor texts and SEO in general is that they are just unrelated words that you have to somehow fit in to make your webpage appear high on the ranking. Remember relevance scores very high in every search algorithm’s list and dumping irrelevant keywords could result in harming rather than helping your SEO strategy.

Focus on UX: Targeted keywords are great, and are usually quite central to every SEO strategy. They have not become obsolete, they have just gotten nuanced. So what earlier used be padding keywords cleverly with language, has now turned tides. Consider this – say the keyword is “Best sushi Japanese food restaurant in Hyderabad” – it could look unnatural on a restaurant’s website. Instead make it relevant and trim it to suit the webpage. 

Keep it unique and different: Google and the reader too are increasingly looking for content that makes them go wow. But at the same time, keywords are phrases that make content redundant. A fine balance between the two will make for a good strategy. There are also several ratios – say keeping your keywords within that particular range of match so that you follow a method. Do not compromise on content quality or creativity to stay SEO relevant. As algorithms are increasingly ruled by AI and natural language processing, keeping your content fresh and unique will fetch you in the long run.

Tracking anchor texts: There are tools to help you do this. Linkio’s Anchor text categoriser is highly recommended – one that helps you track and test how anchor texts specifically effect your SEO. Semrush also enables you to monitor anchor texts through backlinks.

Types of Anchor Texts

Like with other SEO jargon, anchor texts too are neatly classified. There are different types of Anchor texts depending on their functionality.

Exact match anchor texts: Where exact keywords are used as anchor texts. But with over usage recent changes in search engine algorithm have begun penalising this.

Partial match anchor text: This is where your keywords are included, sort of hidden with other words. This enables the search engine to visit the hyperlink and decide if the content is relevant. It is a great way to improve webpage authority on SEO terms.

Latent Semantic Index Keywords (LSI):

Don’t fret because of the name. This is simply another name for assisted or predicted suggestive search. You must have experienced how Google completes the search query for you. When you use LSI keywords on your content, you are giving the search engine an impression that your anchor words are recognisable.

Image anchor keywords: Similarly there are image anchors which could be a call to action clickable button, and there are great strategies to incorporate anchors.

Naked Anchor Text: Remember simple referencing to Wiki articles you do on assignments or documents. This is a classic example of Naked Anchor text. Unless your content calls for academic referencing or citations, this one better be avoided.

Branded Anchor Text: Very useful for outbound links, you can use hyperlinks to reference other relevant brands that already have an established presence. It is kind of piggy backing but not being parasitic, and Google does not disapprove.

: You must have come across these forms where it is mentioned ‘You can read about the effects of a ketogenic diet plan here’ and you click on the here part to take you to the related article. That is a Generic anchor text.

To conclude…

Anchor texts have been there for a long time, but you must pay attention to it as part of your SEO strategy because they effect it quite significantly. The new algorithms are increasingly emphasising on relevant content thus narrowing scope for generated keywords that seem like spam, opines a top Digital Marketing services in Hyderabad. Still, these can be good click baits when used in the right way.