How long should anchor text be? Best practice for anchor text length?
-
site: http://www.cerritosnissan.com/index.htm
On the bottom of this homepage there is an seo content area, basically right under where it says "orange county nissan" welcomes you. The internal links in this area are very long and I'm wondering why they would do this - is there any benefit to making anchor text longer? The longer the anchor text, the less each part of that anchor text passes link juice.
For example, for a page about their reviews, the anchor text of the link is "See what Cerritos Nissan customers have to say about their experience at this great Orange County Nissan Dealership.". If I would have done this the anchor text would be "Cerritos Nissan Reviews" or just plain "reviews" as the anchor text.
-
The two thoughts that come to my mind when thinking of anchor text are:
-
what word or phrase would encourage readers to click
-
what word or phrase would work best for search engines? What is a user likely to type into google?
You offered the phrase: "See what Cerritos Nissan customers have to say about their experience at this great Orange County Nissan Dealership.
I would suggest something along the lines of: Read feedback from Cerritos Nissan customers regarding their experience at this great Orange County Nissan dealer.
"Feedback from Ceritos Nissan customers" would be a link to your our-experience.htm page. "Orange County Nissan dealer" would be a link to your home page.
-
-
In reality, there is not specific "right" length of anchor text. Search engines fully expect everything from single word to several word anchors, a mix of keyword specific, brand, and generic random text.
In an ideal world, it should come down to "what makes the most sense here from a user perspective". In the case of the example you point out, it looks odd, but not from a spammy perspective - you don't get seo value (perceived or otherwise) from including "click here to view" in the link.
Instead, it is less than ideal from a user experience perspective. It's actually a failed marketing attempt at motivating people to click on the links.
-
Yes, I would definitely agree... looks rather spammy. Much of the anchor text is a throw away on some of the links: "Click here to view the..."; "Feel free to browse the..."; "Click here to access..."; etc. No value there!
-
Do you agree with me that their anchor text is too long?
-
The "See what Cerritos Nissan customers...." anchor text is pretty lengthy. If I understand correctly, the 6 - 8 word max or less than 55-60 character rule of thumb should apply to the anchor text. Like most other things related, keeping it in check seems to make the most sense. If the anchor text is more descriptive this will give the link more weight.
On the shorter side of things though... How many times have we seen "click here" to download. Is the link value "click here"... or rather is it about the page or item we're clicking to get to?
-John
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
-
Keywords that are bold in text
Hi, Does anyone think having keywords in your articles that are bold or i_talic_ or underlined makes any difference ?
On-Page Optimization | | ReSEOlve0 -
Scrolling Javascript News Ticker messing up Anchor Text.
I have a javascript scrolling news ticker on my site but it seems to play havoc with my anchor text. I like it because it scrolls through showing a new set of pages. I set it to the ones I've just uploaded and it seems to help them get followed and indexed. However when I use site explorer I can see the recorded anchor text for a link to a page is incorrect and it's taking the text from the news ticker. Even when a link has come from the news ticker url it seems to take anchor text from the ticker order list before or after. It's as if it records the anchor text and then when it follows the link to the page the ticker has changed to a new link Is this ticker bad for seo? it certainly jumbles up my anchor text, could that be a good thing? Is there an SEO friendly news ticker for newly added products?
On-Page Optimization | | Peter24680 -
Varied or consistent anchor text?
Should be focussing on consistent anchor text (for internal links) across my site to focus on specific keywords, or would it be more beneficial to variations of keywords? Just food for thought 🙂
On-Page Optimization | | underscorelive0 -
Long tail traffic - what is the best way to go back and add focus to repetitive long tail keywords?
Hey everybody, So, our niche doesn't have a million and a half searches per month, which makes a handle full of visitors look mighty enticing to a CMO Our price point is very high too, so to the question, is it worth taking the time to put a whole new content strategy in line for a few new visitors, the answer is yes. Now's the hard part. How on earth do I make 1,000 pages for similar topics? Is making new pages the best way to go about this? (probably so right? It's the only thing that I can see that would certainly increase likelihood of being more relevant, plus if I don't I will be missing out on the benefits of beefing up our site, AND the opportunity to more specifically answer a users query.) With phrases like "keyword" and "aftermarket keyword," the searcher is asking for two totally separate collections of results. I'm always reading about the importance of being there throughout the buyers complete purchasing /research process, which makes me think that considering doing anything other than creating unique pages is simply missing out.. Suggestions? Massive Content Strategy Help? Anybody? Thanks, TA
On-Page Optimization | | TylerAbernethy0 -
What is the best way to handle small business site architecture?
I do allot of work for small businesses with around 15-20 total pages. What is the best site architecture? For example if its a landscaping website, should there be a services category page and pages under that (domain.com/services/lawn-mowing.html) or should it be flatter (domain.com/lawn-mowing.html) They offer about 10 different services.
On-Page Optimization | | JohnWeb120 -
What is the Best Landing Page setup?
I have seen a few different types of landing pages. I am trying to figure out which style works best from a SEO perspective. 1. The cram everything possible onto the page approach ala nyt.com? 2. The fill your home page with a ton of links approach like cnn.com? 3. The put just a small sample of your content approach like seomoz? I see 4 blog snippets, a "Go To My Campaign" call to action and that's it. 4. Pages like Groupon.com which have 100% focus on a call to action. I also notice many focused pages like Groupon remove the header and footer on their landing page. Does that help the page retain it's PR better?
On-Page Optimization | | KevinPatrick0 -
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 -
Best site structure for SEO
Hi, I'm currently in the process of redesigning/rebuilding a well ranking but a dated looking and structured website. Using analytics info I'm trying to put togerther an optimied site map plan for the site based on keywords. Currently the site is structured like this (a few examples) for some of its best ranking keywords / landing pages www.companyname.co.uk/frames/software/companyname-software/keyword/overview.php www.companyname.co.uk/frames/software/companyname-software/keyword/keyword.php I'd like to simplfy this as part of the re build so url's look like this www.companyname.co.uk/companyname-software/softwarecatogry/keyword Obviously I would 201 the old urls. My question is : A. is this a good idea? (From what I've read it is?) B. is there any benifit from having the company name repeated in the url (ie www.companyname.co.uk/companyname-software). My thinking before this is that companyname-software currently ranks well and brings a good amount of traffic. Or should I just go with www.companyname.co.uk/software/softwarecatogry/keyword as opposed to www.companyname.co.uk/companyname-software/softwarecatogry/keyword? Many thanks in advance!
On-Page Optimization | | JamesJacobs0