OK to change the anchor text of a link?
-
I have built a link on behalf of a ciient in a long, well-written article on a reputable website that accepts contributor accounts. I therefore control the link.
I have since realised that the anchor text of the link could be optimized much better than it currently is (while still only being a partial match). Would I be punished by the algorithm for going in and changing the link?
I know it's not 100% "natural," but then we're SEOs, and i don't think it's too implausible that a website owner may go in and do the same... Maybe if I add some text as well, it would make things look more natural?
-
If they crawl the article again, and notice that the anchor text has changed, then it could put up a red flag.
Yes, indeed. I agree with Bernadette.
Every site should have some anchor text diversity. It keeps you from looking like you are trying to manipulate the search engines. This particular anchor text, which is not exactly what you want, could actually be extremely beneficial if lots of your other links have highly optimized anchor text.
I would not tweak this link. Google is watching.
-
Zakkyg, if the link was in an article, and Google has already crawled the link, then keep in mind that they DO know what that anchor text is, and have noted it. If they crawl the article again, and notice that the anchor text has changed, then it could put up a red flag. Typically, when an article is written, it's complete--if the anchor text changes or a link is added, it could potentially be turned into a paid link or "optimized" link, which is what you're doing.
Generally speaking, you have a limited time to get the anchor text updated... if it's an older post then it may not make a difference.
-
It would be highly unlikely you would be penalized for updating the anchor text in one blog. I would be more concerned if you had an alarmingly high number of exact match anchor text links pointing to your client's site.
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
-
Re: Inbound Links. Whether it's HTTP or HTTPS, does it still go towards the same inbound link count?
Re: Inbound Links. If another website links to my website, does it make a difference to my inbound link count if they use http or https? Basically, my site http://mysite.com redirects to https://mysite.com, so if another website uses the link http://mysite.com, will https://mysite.com still benefit from the inbound links count? I'm unsure if I should reach out to all my inbound links to tell them to use my https URL instead...which would be rather time consuming so just checking http and https counts all the same. Thanks.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | premieresales0 -
Value of no-follow links
I'm curious to understand roughly how much % of value a no-follow link has in building authority relative to a do-follow link? I understand that Google seems consistently and growingly focused on value - ie. is the link valuable in growing the business, irregardless of SEO - and perhaps therefore the no-follow / do-follow distinction is becoming a more unnecessary dichotomy. How does Google look at do-follow vs no-follow links? And how much weight now is really given to one compared to the other?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Gavo0 -
Hammered by Spam links
When we moved from one host to another in Wordpress engine, we had this insertion weird redirect thing happen. We 410'd the page cgi-sys/movingpage.cgi, but it hit us hard in the anchors. If you go to ahrefs, we are literally all Asian in anchors text. Anybody have any suggestions, thank goodness it looks like it finally stopped. I am looking for creative ways to repopulate our back end with the right stuff. Any thoughts would be great! Heres a example: allartalocaltours.com/tumi-tote-401.html ↳customerbloom.com/cgi-sys/movingpage.cgi ↳www.customerbloom.com/cgi-sys/movingpage.cgi ↳lockwww.customerbloom.com/cgi-sys/movingpage.cgi
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | mattguitar990 -
Links not removed
Hello, I want some help regarding Bad links, I have Uploaded Disavow links, webmaster tools before 4-5 months But still, They are showing in Back links to my Site & Not disavow, can any one Help For this ? why they still appears in backlinks to my site, Why not removed Still ? Thanx in Advance, Falguni
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Sanjayth0 -
Changing the spellings of titles and URl changes
Hi, Changing the spellings of titles and URl changes We identifies 500+ titles with some issues like spellings and punctuations and short or too long. We want to change them, but the titles are connected with the URL's when we change the titles the URl's change as well. My questions are 1. Is it a good way to change them all in one shot or do few daily 2. As the URl's change will Google index drop the old pages as they would be 404 and index new ones? 3. Will we have chances to have drop in traffic due to this? 4. Any way to redirect? as we have a Drupal website Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | mtthompsons0 -
Linking across categories
On a website when I link across in the same category should all the categories all pear on each page. Let's say I have 6 categories and 6 pages should I have the 6 links on all the pages ( such as A, B, C, D, E, on page 1 ( let's imagine this page is page F ), then on page A have link B, C D, E, F and so on for the 6 pages ( meaning all the links appear on all the pages across the category ) or should i just have let's say 3 links on page 1 ( link A, B, C ) , then link ( D, E, F ) on page 2, then A, E, F on page 3, link B, C F on page 4 and so on... ( which means that i vary the links that appear and that it is naturally ( at least I think ) going to boost the link that appears the most of the 6 pages ? I hope this is not too confusing, Thank you,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoanalytics0 -
100 + links on a scrolling page
Can you add more than 100 links on your webpage If you have a webpage that adds more content from a database as a visitor scrolls down the page. If you look at the page source the 100 + links do not show up, only the first 20 links. As you scroll down it adds more content and links to the bottom of the page so its a continuos flowing page if you keep scrolling down. Just wanted to know how the 100 links maximum fits into this scenario ?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jlane90 -
Anchor Text Diversification – Branded VS Non Branded – What is the best approach… if any?
Our organization competes in the Drug & Alcohol Treatment Category… very competitively I must say. While we create content for long-tail keywords, we focus on linking (blogging + Press Release + Acquisition, etc…) as the main strategy to increase relevancy for 4 major keywords. (Alcohol Rehab, Drug Rehab, Alcohol Treatment, and Drug Treatment)… all these terms have their respective landing pages, and we try to provide a good flow of new links coming to these pages on a weekly basis… Lately we have been acquiring more links than we anticipated… not a bad thing since they are from reputable websites… however I am a bit concern regarding the Anchor Text distribution of these links. Example Let’s say I get 100 links to my ‘Alcohol Rehab’ page – what is an appropriate percentage for the anchor text distribution? For example: Branded Links 20 - Keyword: St Jude Retreats
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | dhidalgo1
Exact Match Links 70 - Keyword: Alcohol Rehab
Broad Links 10 - Keyword: Rehab Is this an ok distribution, or should I change things around? Hope you guys can help! Thanks!!!!0