An anchor has a single purpose—to link a boat or other seaworthy object to the sea bed, keeping it from drifting aimlessly. Anchor text, the highlighted text on a website that links to another page, serves a similar purpose. Its goal is to connect the two and smoothly guide readers from one page to another. Understanding anchor text links and using them properly is essential to properly managing your website’s SEO. It is an effective way to connect to affiliate sites, but linking to relevant and authoritative websites can boost your site in Google’s eyes. Whether promoting an affiliate or adding extra context and information to your website, properly using anchor text links is key to optimizing your website.
Why Anchor Text?
Anchor text stands out from other links for a simple reason—it’s usually relevant. It lets you hyperlink to other content, replacing a lengthy URL with an appropriate keyword to let your readers know what they’re about to read. Anchor text that uses the actual URL can also be practical if you prefer to link people to an article rather than embed it.
Other links may not provide the same results. Your website is shooting for contextual backlinks, but many websites look more at the number of views an affiliate can give rather than the relevance. Non-contextual links, like a link to a local Chinese restaurant in an article on travel, might provide short-term gain. They won’t help you boost your search ranking or build trust with your audience that you’ll always provide relevant information.
Foreign language links are an even dicier issue. Is your website’s audience heavily bilingual? You’re not likely to get too many crossover views, and Google tends to view too many foreign-language links as suspicious. That’s the only circumstance you should consider linking to an article in a foreign language. Before posting one, you should ensure all the content is relevant and accurate and not rely on Google Translate or any other rudimentary tool to proofread it.
Hidden backlinks are one of the oldest tricks on websites. In this technique, a link is placed not in the main text but within the site’s background or elsewhere in the design. This was often used to identify a lot of backlinks on a page without interrupting the flow of the story. While most people might not see it, Google does, and they don’t think highly of it. They view them as a trademark of spam, and most sites that use them get penalized.
While the same doesn’t exactly apply to links placed in a site’s header or sidebar, this generally doesn’t benefit you too much from Google. The plus of this link is that it will be on every site page, so it’s a good choice if you want to promote a link to something relevant. Just don’t expect it to boost your ranking too much.
You should also ensure that none of your backlinks are from penalized sites. Google monitors which areas it views as untrustworthy, and while linking to them will usually not hurt your site directly, it might not give you the full benefit of the link.
Using Anchor Text Effectively
Adapt your anchor text links to the content you’re producing to get the most out of your anchor text links. Hyperlinks using highlighted text are ideal for articles that want to slip seamlessly into the paper. Connections using the full URL are better for articles or in prominent places on your website afterward.
You don’t want to just put anchor texts on your website and let them rest there. It’s essential to monitor Google’s changing standards and ensure your website keeps up with the times. If one of your links drops in Google’s search engine rankings, you might need to change up your links regularly, significantly. You also want to ensure you’re not overloading your site with links, which could hurt its functionality.
Anchor Your Site to Success
The digital marketplace is an ecosystem, and no site succeeds solely. Anchor text links are one of the most effective ways to connect your site to other relevant sites. Using this tool effectively can boost your profile and create stronger connections in the community.
