Any opinions about the common anchor text?
-
Hey guys so I was reviewing my website to make sure there are no exact anchor texts repeated throughout the site.
But I was wondering what are your thoughts about the common (and useless) anchor text like "read more", "learn more", "see more information", "contact us", and things of that nature. These are usually repeated across the majority of sites out there, how does Google differentiate between over optimized anchor text and these common anchor texts?
-
I wouldn't worry too much about those. Just focus on keeping your site natural.
-
You are going to see very little benefit from optimized anchor text on internal links. Use the anchor text that will most encourage your users to keep clicking through. This doesn't mean necessarily "read more", though. Think about calls to action in anchor text that are more compelling.
-
These common or 'useless' anchor texts are what search engines grew up with. Before marketers started using anchor text to manipulate search engines, "read more," "learn more" etc was fairly common. Try focusing less on anchor text and more on the proximity of words around anchor text instead.
I'm not sure how Google differentiates between the two, but then again I don't really care because I don't use anchor text to improve rankings. I let my quality content do that.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
In your opinion, best CDN provider?
Hi Moz Community, This is my first post and I just want to introduce myself and say hello! I need to know (who in your opinion) is the best CDN provider? I use the platform WordPress and currently host with HostGator if this helps. Thank you
On-Page Optimization | | xdunningx0 -
Image heavy pages: Google friendly fonts / seo text etc
Hi Google friendly fonts - are these in wide use now, do they work ? If you have image heavy site do they work just as well as using what we used to call 'seo text'. I have heard that 'seo text' not really used anymore or at least rebranded to 'helpful, informative paragraph or two of body copy about the page with a couple of the pages target keywords in it'. I take it if fonts in image not google friendly then should still ask dev for some space to fit in a para or two of some proper body copy, with couple of pages target kw in it ? Also looking like if i succeed in this request will be below the fold, how hard should i fight for it to be above the fold ? cheers dan
On-Page Optimization | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
Question Re Cornerestone Page And Anchor Text For Internal/External Links
Suppose I create a cornerstone page with the targeted keyword "Dog Collars". I write a dozen articles on various dog collars and point a link from each article to my cornerstone page. Should the anchor text for the links from each of those articles to the cornerstone page be "Dog Collars" or should they vary, but still be relevant to "Dog Collars" for best SEO? Should half of them be "Dog Collars" and the other half various? Also, if I have 12 articles and all of the anchor text is already "Dog Collars", should I go back and change them so that they all don't say the same thing? If hope my question makes sense ... thanks in advance. I will give thumbs up for helpful responses and suggestions 😉
On-Page Optimization | | Humanovation0 -
Some of my pages have KWs in common and google is switching those resulting in rank loss, how to fix that?
Hello, my site deals with pictures you can download and print for free. Because people search for it I have several page with similar content. For example: picture of dog free printing image of dog free printing painting of dog free printing picture of cat free printing image of cat free printing painting of cat free printing Just as an example. Now after tracking my ranks I found out that google changes those sites in the rankings. For example for the kw picture of dog free printing the site for picture of dog free printing is in the rankings but on another day it is image of dog free printing and on another painting of dog free printing. So those Google is switching the pages for one kw some times and it seems each time it does that I'm loosing rankings. I'm thinking it is because image of dog free printing and painting of dog free printing isn't as well optimized as the page that should appear: picture of dog free printing. With the more general kw of free printing it is even more complicated. I get some traffic through free printing (just an example) and all 6 example pages are being shown in the google search results from one day to another and again it looses some rank each time. What can I do to stop this?
On-Page Optimization | | SeeSharp10 -
Does the positioning of the text on a webpage matter for search engines?
Does the positioning of the text on a webpage matter for search engines? Do you need to place the text at the upperside of a webpage or is at the bottom also a good option?
On-Page Optimization | | HMK-NL0 -
Does link text "more information" have more weight than a normal link?
Does the anchor text "more information" hold any additional weight than any other anchor text? My suspicion is no, but just wanted to confirm.
On-Page Optimization | | nicole.healthline0 -
On page internal link text
Hi, I'm in the process of rebuilding/designing an existing well ranking niche bespoke software site and have the following question - In the footer, I'm planning on linking to the main landing pages (blue widget software, red widget software etc theres about 7 in total). In these links I want to know if its best to have the word "software" in each link as I'm scared of it looking spamy. We sell custom software, and a lot of the keywords that currently attract traffic (as reported in analytics) end in the word software, for example - blue widget software red widget software In the footer would you end each link with software or not? How much effect would this have on rankings? Thanks in advance.
On-Page Optimization | | JamesJacobs0
