understandingANCHOR TEXT

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One of the strongest signalssearch engines use in rankingsis anchor text.

ACCORDING TOMOZ.COM:

http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/growing-popularity-and-links

SOUNDS IMPORTANT...

...BUT WHAT IS ANCHOR TEXT?

Anchor Text is the clickable,visible text ino a hyperlink.

DEFINITION

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchor_text

These three blue wordsare anchor text

EXAMPLE

All the blue text is anchor text

EXAMPLE

Why is anchor text important?

SO...

BECAUSE

AND

ANDeveryothersearchengine ...

...analyze anchor text in theirsite ranking algorithms.

If I search on Google for thekeyword video games I can seethat IGN.com is near thebottom of the front page.

EXAMPLE

Searching forvideo games?You'll findIGN.com nearthe bottom ofthe front page.

However, if more websitesbegin to use the term videogames as the anchor text fortheir link to IGN.com, IGN willmove higher in the searchrankings for this keyword.

EXAMPLE

ARE THERE DIFFERENTTYPES OF ANCHOR TEXT?

YES, AND HERE ARE 5 OFTHE MOST COMMON.

The anchor text exactlymatches the title, subject, ortheme of the linked site.

1. EXACT MATCH

If a site links tohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romaniausing the anchor textRomania

EXAMPLE

When the anchor text is abrand name and links tothat brand.

2. BRANDED

If a site links tohttp://ikea.comusing the anchor textIKEA

EXAMPLE

Don't panic: a naked link is SFW.

It simply means that the anchortext IS the link.

3. NAKED LINK

If a site links tohttp://doz.comusing the anchor textdoz.com

EXAMPLE

When the anchor text issimilar to 'click here', 'visitnow', or 'go to website'.

4. GENERIC

If a site links tohttp://cnn.comusing the anchor textRead more here

EXAMPLE

When search engines crawl animage they take the alt-textattached to the image as theanchor text.

5. IMAGES

Psst: Need to know how alt-text works?Click to check out our 5 Minute SEO Guide.

The alt-text for this image ishat-smile-canadaand this counts as the anchor text

EXAMPLE

WHAT SHOULD IREMEMBER WHEN

LINKING ANCHOR TEXT?

THESE THREE THINGS.

Use relevant keywords. This is

esepcially important when

linking within your own site.

FIRST:

Avoid generic anchor text. Do

the right thing and add a little

SEO value to the site that you

trust with your link.

SECOND:

Keep it short. Using the anchor

text 'IKEA' is better than

linking the entire sentence

'Buy this table at your local

IKEA today'.

THIRD:

Try these links:

WANT TO READ MORE?

DOZ's 10 Minute SEO Guide

The Epic Guide to Anchor Text

A Basic Guide for Anchor Text

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