Naked link anchors or long tail anchors ?

[isabelledylag]

Hi,

Do naked link anchors such as "www.mysite.com/my-category" have the same SEO power as long tails anchors? What about the UX which such anchors?

Lately a site published our back-to-school article with this horrible naked link anchor, it does not look friendly to me as a reader, but I am wondering whether I should bother, how important it is for google and for readers?

Thank you in advance.

Isabelle

[BlueCorona]

I see the other great responses to your question but wanted to provide some more info as well!

Whether you’re familiar with anchor text or not, if you’ve spent any time on the Internet, you’ve seen it a million times. Anchor text is the keyword or keyword phrase that serves as the link to another web page or web site. Anchor text is typically highlighted like this: anchor text (if you click this example, another window will open up that contains our other blog http://bluecorona.wordpress.com).

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. 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!

[isabelledylag]

Put it this way, it sounds clear and obvious, thank you !

[isabelledylag]

Thanks VIjay, everythings clear !

[MikeRoberts]

It is absolutely natural for people to link to your website with your URL. When looking at your backlink profile, you should see tons of links with the anchor text being things like your naked url or "website" or "this". In fact, it would be incredibly unnatural, and potentially a sign of paid linking schemes, if every single link to your website was a keyword rich, long tail anchor.

[Vijay-Gaur]

Hi Isabelle,

The links anchor needs to be contextual at all times or to the best extent possible.

What is an Ideal natural looking link?

• An ideal link brings targeted traffic related to page/website it links (target traffic ensures fewer bounce rates, which help further for SEO)

How can SEO and traffic benefit from a natural link ?

• You have to use the right Anchor text, which is in the right context with the target URL.
• Natural linking and getting good traffic combined is the best thing to happen in SEO.

As for whether you should use Long-tail or naked link anchors, it totally depends on the context in which the backlink is being created.

For example, I would use naked anchor text when building brand authority (for the website URL) and Anchor text when I wish to target specific keywords.

I hope this helps, let me know if you have further questions, I will be happy to answer them.

Best Regards,

Vijay