How important are 'anchor' text links now
-
We have started building some good links but I'm just wandering how important anchor based text ones are now.
I'm not talking about spamming/going too heavy but a few here and there.What's your recent experience?
-
Hi,
I have to agree with the previous responses. Anchor text is important because it gives web site visitors (and search engines) a hint about the web page or web site they are about to visit (if they click the link). This is why you DON’T want to use common calls to action like, “click here” or “our website.” Instead, you want to use keyword rich anchor text. But you don't want it to become very spammy sounding—so keep this in mind when creating content.
Anchor text helps search engines understand what the page is about and it also helps establish site architecture. And depending on the anchor text of the link, it might even increase your rankings for certain keywords!
As an example, if you’re having a contest to give away a free website makeover for the HVAC industry, make free HVAC website the anchor text! If thousands of web sites link to your site using the anchor text ‘leading residential furnace installers‘ there’s a good chance that you’re in the residential HVAC business and you install furnaces!
I hope this helped! But if you're looking for more information check out our blog that discusses if you need links to rank on Google.
-
Hi,
Of course its important. But do not abuse.
My experience, not over the 5-6% of links should have exact anchor text.
Other 5-6% brand anchor text, and so on.Hope it helps.
GR. -
Hey,
I would say it comes down to natural usage. If the majority of the links to your site have the same keyword focussed anchor text, it would look unnatural and spammy. But a few links containing your target keywords, as a smaller percentage of the overall anchor text being used is fine, and should support your SEO efforts.
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
-
Starting a new site's link campaign... how to approach it?
Over the last few years I have been building content in my niche that I believe rivals some of the best content out there and deserves some attention. Although I have a plan to produce alot more content which I believe will take the quality and quantity of my content into a position among the top 5 or top 10 sites in my niche in the next 1-2 years, I decided that making that massive investment in content production irrespective of a consistent marketing plan is a recipe for failure because I need the positive feedback loop from site visitors to begin now, not in 2 years. Right now I'm in a position where I'm producing content that I think is better than alot of what's out there, and it's just not ranking the way I believe it should. I think I need to do a legitimate link building campaign to establish the website a little more firmly and put it on more level ground with some of its competitors. In Majestic SEO's "fresh index", most of my site's immediate competition have no more than 500 new domains in their links, though the biggest one has some 2,000. How can any link building effort I might take on possibly compare to links of this scale? Is there some "rule of thumb" for how many quality links I should aim for to get on square ground with some of the competitors on the lowest rungs? And if I try to build that many links at once, do I risk sending signals of untrustworthiness? (Assume I'm not going to be looking for any shoddy links, and in general will aim to follow Google guidelines.)
Link Building | | guitarsites0 -
Link removel
When removing links should I be worried about bad links from websites that have already been deindexd from Google or should I think that since it is not in these index any more it cant do harm?
Link Building | | Joseph-Green-SEO0 -
What is keyword rich anchor text?
So, I have searched around the internet but, I still can't find the answer.What is Keyword Rich Anchor Text? Is it basically just exact matching to the page. For example if my page was www.randonmpage.com would a keyword rich anchor text be randompage? Thanks. Peter
Link Building | | PeterRota0 -
Best Anchor Text Practices Post Penguin Panda
my question is what are the best practices Post Penguin and Panda for anchor texts? I have heard info about using brand names, and not having duplicate anchor texts. But i'm confused; if its best to have brand names then likely it will end up being duplicate. Also is having no anchor bad? I have also heard that it is best just to use the website URL. It would be great if someone could clear this up for me thanks.
Link Building | | ilyaelbert0 -
Why does my site only have 4 internal followed links/internal links?
When using Open Site Explorer my site is winning in many categories but lacking in others as compared to competitors. I intend to improve on this but am a little confused by the extremely low number of "internal followed links" and "internal links" at just 4. My competitors have much more than that. Does this mean links to the root domain? Total internal links? I have many internal links so I'm having a hard time figuring this one out. What four internal links are getting noticed? I just went through and changed all the links that went to index.html to link to the root domain at www.njlimocarservice.com as I just found a Q&A that indicates this was better. So as of Wed at 5:45 PM all my links to the homepage went to index.html and not the root which is no longer the case. Not sure if this matters. At the same time I also just put a 301 from index.html to redirect to www.njlimocarservice.com. Any help appreciated! h9QuF.png
Link Building | | kabledesigns0 -
Copying Competitor's Link Backs?
Hello, Is it a viable idea to copy competitors link structure? Imagine we manage a new site with low page and domain authority. Is okay to use the Link Tool and filter domains that link back to our competitor and then work our way up from low ranking directories and related sites? Currently I am using RoboForm and trying to 'catch up' to a competitor in terms of link backs. Additionally, I've been reading articles about whether submitting to directories is good, but if we see they have alright domain and page authorities, does it make sense to apply to them when our competitors are in them? Much appreciated
Link Building | | Uramark0 -
Two Links, Same Anchor Text, To Same Page. Is There A Point?
Hey guys, My question is this. Let's say I have an article, "How To Golf". I post this article onto my blog. Then I write a complementary article to the first article called "Introduction To Golf". My plan is to submit this new article to various directories to build backlinks for the article on my blog. So here lies my question. Say I am allowed two links from my new article to the one on my blog. The anchor text I am using is "golf". Is there a point to including two links with the same anchor text (golf) in the new article pointing back to my blog article? When Google spiders the complementary article will it consider the links two separate links with the anchor text "golf" or will it just count the two links as one link. After all, the two links have the same anchor text and are both pointing to the same page.
Link Building | | lawrenceyu11130