What is an 'Anchor Text' and does it have any SEO Benefit?
-
Hi - we have been building as SEO strategy but need clarification on what benefit 'anchor text' has for SEO rankings?
For example - we have been creating links from external sites to ours, but the anchor text is not our main search term. I.E - the Anchor Text reads 'web design', but the ALT TAG reads 'web design birmingham'.
Question is - if we wish to achieve maximum SEO rankings for the term 'web design birmingham', where should it appear....in the ALT TAG or the Annchor text'?
Many thanks!
Phil
-
_After the penguin update you have to be careful while linking with anchor text. It is now like following a middle path and this is the kind of anchor text policy I would like you to implement -
Natural Anchor Text: 25%
Click Here
More Info
Click to Know MoreBranded Keyword and Long tail keyword 30**%**
Example.com web design company in Birmingham
Example.com – best web design company in Birmingham_Example.com Birmingham
Related keyword 30% One of the best web design companies in Birmingham
Award winning Birmingham based web design company
Creative web Design Company in
Targeted keyword 15% web design Birmingham
-
Since the Penguin update this year, the anchor text portion of a link will matter less going forward. Without getting too technical they basically turned off part of their algorithm to see if the results were better when they didn't account for anchor text. It got better, "more robust" results so they changed the algorithm to interpret and use anchor text to better determine how relevant a given anchor might be for a given query and website. (Sorry, I got a little technical there.)
Bottom line is link structure, quality of the link and relevancy of the link matter more than the actual anchor text. Keep to relevant sites with good page and domain authority (use SEOMoz Toolbar to determine this) and you'll be fine.
-
The alt tag in links has no impact on SEO. So the answer is Anchor Text
Be careful though. I would suggest alternating the anchor text you target in your link building efforts.
Go for some naked urls and some branded anchor text in addition to the targeted keyword anchor text as this will make your link profile look more natural to google
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
-
SEO Implications For a Technical Functionality Fix
Our Magento based affiliate extension is not working, due to a conflict with the Varnish caching system. Varnish has a known bug which does not allow multiple cookies to be set. Our workaround involves redirecting any request with the affiliate tracking parameter to the HTTPS version of the site. Varnish does not run on HTTPs and therefore our affiliate cookie will be set. Note: the main content of our site runs on HTTP. My SEO concern is how to handle this for the search engines. We have a few things to consider: Redirect: Should we use a 301 or 302? Canonical: It seems to make sense to include a canonical on the HTTP version of the site without the affiliate tracking parameter - right? Robots Meta Tags: "noindex, follow" or "index, follow" Am I missing something? Thanks for your time and consideration!
Affiliate Marketing | | 19prince0 -
What impact do affiliate links have on SEO
We commonly reference engineering standards on our site (because half our products are known and searched for by those standard names) and have just signed up as an affiliate to an organisation that sell the standards. Which seems a nice match We're going through and making sure all are no follow now because that seems the general advice - but should we be doing anything else? Yoast says you should mask affiliate links - https://yoast.com/affiliate-links-and-seo/ - but that was from 2010. Matt Cutts is fairly clear on nonfollow - http://www.webpronews.com/heres-what-googles-matt-cutts-says-about-affiliate-links-and-nofollow-2012-06 - but not on whether it affects SERPS Does it? And what is the best way to handle it? This is a typical example of a page where we would have an affiliate link or two. http://www.oakleysteel.co.uk/fake-mill-certificates-en10168
Affiliate Marketing | | Zippy-Bungle0 -
Is there a benefit in buying re-directed domains?
We're an online theater news and reviews site. We're moderately popular in our industry. We're considering purchasing related domains (e.g. theatertickets.com, theaterticketing.com, etc) that redirect to our main site. Is there a marketing or SEO value in doing this?
Affiliate Marketing | | TheaterMania0 -
New site started doing well, now it's tanking
Im confused by activity from a site I opened less than a month ago. I ranked in the top ten for the local version of my primary phrase. Within two weeks I was up to number two. I created a few new pages without content in order to build age. I also paid for a pair of clearly marked classified ads at trusted sites thatprovide traffic from potential clients. Next, I stated revamping my pages by revising and editing content. my site has dropped like a brick. My content is the best it's been and improving daily. Im not sure what to do. Should I start over? Do I keep improving my site and give it a few months? Would anyone be willing to review my site and provide a few tips? Fyi, I understand some of my pages need more content. my formatting is a mess with iOS 7 on iPad.
Affiliate Marketing | | youngmaster0 -
SEO and Affiliate Links
Hello, We run a travel related website and we started to run our own affilate newtwork to promote the sales of our products. At the moment the affilate links pont to a spacific affilate url in order to tack conversions : abcweb.com/affiliate/nameqaz I'm wondering how is the best way to run a private affilate programm considering SEO: Is there a way yo benefit from those links ? What are the best strategies to do this? If yes, Is there any benefit from redirecting 301 those links to the original page (the one accesible to google and the one we want to rank for) or is it better to use a king of canonical method. Thanks a lot for sharing you experiences , giving your opinion and indicate resources. Best Regards Daria
Affiliate Marketing | | stereo690 -
Casino SEO
I'm considering entering the online casino arena with an affiliate site. These keywords such as 'online roulette', 'online blackjack' are massively competitive with high page and domain authority sites on page one. Does anyone have any experience of this area and is it possible to compete in it? Apparently long tail keywords don't really convert in this area so I may have to go for these highly competitive keywords. Any thoughts?
Affiliate Marketing | | SamCUK0 -
What's an inexpensive way to maintain domain registration privacy?
Other than using a paid service like 'Domains by Proxy', is there a clever way to maintain my privacy with a domain registration w/o incurring the added annual cost of privacy service fees for every domain I own?
Affiliate Marketing | | Fly4Fun0 -
Does an affiliate link bring the same SEO juice as a standard link?
I wonder if affiliate links, like the ones offered by Amazon Associates program bring the same SEO as would a link to the same page without this additional "ref=..."?
Affiliate Marketing | | maciek-0