What is a healthy ratio of keywords being used as anchor text in external links to our site?
-
Hi,
One keyword is being used as anchor text in way more external links to our site than any others and I'm getting a lot of mixed advice whether or not to do anything about it. The agency we previously used had managed to remove about 1500 links (out of 6000) however our rank for that search term is still very poor.
**We have 4500 external links with the anchor text "ABC" and the next highest amount of external link anchor text is the term "XYZ" which has about 400 links. That is over 10 to 1. What is a healthy ratio of anchor text between different search terms to aim for? **
Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
-
Try not to focus on percentages. most SEOs try and build a certain % of each type (branded, naked URL, exact match keyword, random anchors, synonym keywords, etc).
The problem with trying to do this is you're manipulating your link profile. The key to building a natural link profile is letting the link type do the work.
Take your Moz profile as an example. You're allowed a link to multiple sites - the NATURAL link type for this is naked. Other sites will let you add an anchor - if you do, use a branded one.
Blog comments are another example. Most platforms will allow you to create an anchor, but it's unnatural. Use a naked URL for blog comments and you can diversify easily.
There's a really good article that goes into detail about it here: http://webris.org/anchor-text/
-
In my opinion the best way to deal with it is to leave it up to them as you want things natural so play it the natural way!
-
Hi Moosa,
Thanks so much for the reply to my question, that makes things a lot more clear for me.
What are some good ways you can suggest I request for natural-sounding anchor text? Or should I just leave it up to the webmaster/blogger/writer who is linking to us?
Luckily I've built some decent relationships these influencers in my industry via networking and social media but I'm still very new to link building and SEO so I'm not sure how to approach these conversations without coming off as spammy. I feel like its awkward to ask anyone for a share/link/mention let alone asking for a specific anchor text.
Please share your thoughts if you have time, I greatly appreciate your opinion so far, means a lot that you took the time to help!
Syed Raza
-
Hi Patrick,
Awesome, thanks for your answer and for the articles, they were very helpful. I am still very new to link building/earning and inbound marketing in general so I truly appreciate you reaching out to help.
The over-optimized anchor text I'm dealing with is a non-branded, competitive search phrase for our market. Theres about 4500 ext. links with that keyword anchor text out of approx. 10000 total inbound links.
At 45% non-branded anchor text, is it likely the reason we are no where to be found in the SERPs for that phrase?
Apparently the previous SEO agency tried:1-contact individual webmasters to remove links 2- submit a disavow file to google and 3- emailed google reconsideration request. There were able to remove 1500 links, bringing the number from 6000 down to 4500. So when Penguin originally hit the site it was more like 60-65% of this one no-brand anchor text. This what I've been told by the business owner.
What else can I do to clean up these bad links? Should I be looking at tools like LinkRisk or LinkDetox as a solution?
Thanks again so much for your time
Syed
-
I don’t think come up with any number or percentage would be a good idea but when I use to deal with these kinds of things… I just make sure that the anchor text should be as natural as possible. I mean if I got 15% of the links pointing back to my site with the Brand name, I probably will be fine with it but if it is a keyword that makes no sense in natural piece; in that case 3% is even a high number.
Hope this helps!
-
Hi Syed,
There is no exact answer to your question as if you ask 10 SEOs, you very well may get 10 different answers. As Google hasn't defined this ration, the answers and opinions on this subject are widely debated and subjective to the industry.
That being said, a good anchor text ratio to consider is roughly 30% branded anchor text, 70% non-branded keyword anchor text. This is information we've looked into and had discussions about with other SEOs and a source of some quality research and data on this can be found here http://sundayseo.net/penguin-2-0-what-should-your-anchor-text-ratios-be/ and another great article here http://moz.com/blog/anchor-text-distribution-avoiding-over-optimization, which does a fantastic job of breaking it down even further. So, a solid anchor text ration should be 7:3 to emulate the Moz blog written by Geoff.
Hope this was a helpful answer! - Patrick
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
-
How to analyse a big drop in external links
Hi! Can someone tell me the best way to determine what caused a big drop in External Followed Links? I have used tools like remove em in the past to try and get rid of exact match keyword links but I'm unsure if this was the root cause. Our rankings went up the 3 months after this period, but this year they have dropped back to levels from 2015. I'm wondering if this drop has anything to do with this decline. See attached. EHyIy
Link Building | | KerryK0 -
Domain authority vs. anchor text in backlinks
Hi - I launched a new blog ~3 months ago and I've managed to get some backlinks from Yahoo, Cnet, Huffington Post, Gimodo, etc. I created some compelling and unique content. However, all of the anchor text of all of the links is mywebsite.com or mywebsite. None of them are the actual keywords I want such as "this website is great for keyword blah and keyword blah" My question is....could I get more "juice" from these links if they had more specific anchor text or is their high domain authority enough as far as google is concerned?
Link Building | | garyislearning0 -
If a bad link domain drops from my site do I regain authority.
Hi Guys, I wanted to know for example if 2 years ago I purchased SEO from some guys that were building links to sites that had very high PR which was important way back when. And now those links are negatively affecting my SEO stopping me reaching position 1 for a term 'replacement keys' and we are stuck in position 2. If the sites were to be reset or domains sold for those sites that were linking in do you think this was remove the penalty on us as a knock-on effect. Thanks James
Link Building | | jameslane880 -
Should you ever change your anchor text ?
Hello I have a question about anchors. I have done all my own seo over the last 3 years, with tools from various sites. I had an seo audit done about 1 month ago and was told my link profile was very natural. They had one recommendation. To go back over my link profile and ask some webmasters if they would change the anchor from the name of my site or my url to a more seo friendly phrase. This seemed logical. I never did a lot of anchor text just name or site or url. Anyway, over last 4 weeks I have messaged several webmasters and asked to have anchor text changed to something along the lines of the keywords Im targeting. Tedious task to go through all the links but I changed several anchors to what was recommended. I was also out link building at same time. These last links and I got several of them all natural links after 16 hours work days. Are all will seo friendly anchors, because as Ive gotten more experienced my links have gotten more in lines of what is "seo friendly" or at least I hoped. I asked one webmaster to change my anchor and he warned me I would be slapped with a penguin penalty and wouldn't recommend I do this. I have already done this to several of my links. Then today the new seomoz update came up and I was down on DA and PA by 3-4 points. Do these have anything to do with one another and have I been given bad advice and can I fix it if I have ? Sorry about long post just a little confused. I don't want to step into penalty land and not know I did.
Link Building | | New1000ad0 -
What value do external broken links give to a domain?
I ask, as I've just used opensite explorer to look at external links a competitor has, and I've found the high value ones at the top of the list go to a page that no longer exists on their site. Are these stiill of value in the SERP's, or have they messed up by not putting a 301 redirect on them?
Link Building | | xposurecreative0 -
Links from Related Sites with Low PR or semi-related sites with High PR?
Is it better to get a link from a site with lower PR but related content or higher PR but semi-related or unrelated content? For example, if I sell shoes, would a link from a PR1 or PR2 shoe or apparel site be better or a link from PR4 website that sells books be better? I'm not talking about sites with completely unrelated content, but how relevant is PR in obtaining relevant links if I am trying to raise the PR and rankings of my own site?
Link Building | | applesofgold0 -
If I write a PR release on a site such as PRweb with anchor-text links that is picked up and published by other news sites, do the engines consider this duplicate content or additional, beneficial links?
I recently wrote a news release on PRweb that was picked up identically by 8 other news websites, with the same anchor-text links as the original. Is the reproduction of duplicate content and links across different websites like this to the benefit or detriment of SEO and ranking power? Some of the links are: http://www.mynewsdesk.com/uk/view/pressrelease/eventa-new-eventa-christmas-parties-website-is-launched-648923?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Alert&utm_content=pressrelease http://www.prweb.com/releases/christmasparties/neweventasite/prweb8562064.htm Many thanks!!
Link Building | | RobertHill0