Anchor text is text on a web page that is linked to another web page.
For example, in this link the anchor text is “this link.”
Backlinks (links from another site to your site) have always been important for SEO and how high a website ranks in search results. The keywords in the anchor text of links to your site are also important for helping your site rank higher for those keywords.
When you link to web pages on your site or someone else’s, think carefully about the anchor text that you use. Use keywords that may help your or their SEO, but don’t forget about the reader. Make sure your choice of anchor text makes it easy to read your sentence and to have a good idea of what you can expect to find when you click the link.
Since March 2012, Google began using anchor text as a way to detect paid links (which are against their guidelines). Google warned people when they detected “unnatural links” – links to their site with perfect anchor text, or that seemed like they were paid for and too good to be natural. Read How to Avoid an Unnatural Links Penalty and Google’s Penguin Update: Prevention & Recovery for more information.
Have a question about anchor text? Comment below.
Kristina, please dont leave out how important alt= “descriptions” are to search engines. As to those nasty anchor text we use ontop of url{s} many of us overlook them or say click here. Now when I say “Travel 365″, as my anchor, I am directing those individuals to visit my site leaving my url masked from viewers. I also use title= “descriptions”, to make it easier for search engines. I also include rel= ‘follow’ to help the search engines. In my opinion, anything I can do to help a search engine helps me. If I am wrong on these points let me know.
Dr. Robert – I think title text is pretty cool, especially for buttons and images. I talk about title text a bit in this article about alt text for images. I don’t know how much SEO value it has, but it certainly couldn’t hurt, and I think it’s great for humans :-)
KRISTINA: I myself believe “alt” attributes which I see many not using “IS” an important SEO element. Because alot of search engines read meta tags the alt tags are often overlooked by SEO consults. However, some of the big engines are not viewing meta tags so they depend on alt attributes. And as you pointed out, they work well, especial for images that dont display as they should or a particular browser doesnt show images, “OR” as you pointed out for the hearing and or sight impaired. There are so many alt attributes that many SEO consults are not using to their potential.
Thanks dr robert and kristina for these reminders. I use the “alt” tag religously because I believe it has great value for SEO, had forgotten about using “title” which I believe also adds value from a SEO point of view.
cheers,
Mango.
THANK YOU MANGO: I myself find that all html, xhtml, html5, attributes have great significance when used appropriately. However, there are those who over use them and thus google and others may look at as an over optimization. Just a caveate. I find these up and down the line myself.
KRISTINA: I spoke with A tech at Google about TITLE and they advised against it. They said in so many words that it confuses robots more than helps. When they search the descriptive in meta looses to title in using it with images. So if your site is meta “Its A wonderful life” and you place a banner titled “Arid Extra Dry” you might find your site indexed as “Arid Extra Dry”. Just a caveate to think about. I also like title attribute but I use them more in forms, docs, and tables. I knew I overlooked what you were speaking of and I am glad I went back and reread TITLE… But I am glad I spoke with my tech friend just so I could give you a better answer on the SEO VALUE. After hearing this I would say search engines give title a high value. I didnt know that title=” ” held more value than <meta /meta > but I do see why this might confuse a spider.