Let's get started because I have a lot to tell you about the type of anchor texts.
The first type is:
Image Anchor Links
Adding ALT text to your image description is important? Your ALT text for images is what Google reads as the image’s anchor (in other words image is part of a link).
Image anchors are healthy because they diversify your anchor text profile. Plus, they can improve your SEO for Google images. When you write a descriptive ALT text for the image link.
Long-Tail Anchors
Long-tail anchors contain more words. These give you a chance to include your keyword along with some related, descriptive, generic, or branded keywords.
Sometimes, long-tail anchors can include an entire subheading or headline for a link. Other times, writers will link to a whole sentence. While you don’t necessarily want to write long-tail anchors all the time, they can be useful for SEO. Plus, you can’t control what other sites do.
Here's an example:
You can read part one and two in this series at the links below.
SEO - Link Building and Backlinks
SEO - What Are the Types of Anchor Texts?
Now I know what you're asking yourself "Does Anchor Text Affect SEO?"
Google has always used anchor words to learn what webpages are about, so it can rank it for the right keywords.
Now this makes sense to me and it should to you too.
What I'm sharing with you comes straight from Google, anchors provide more objective descriptions of a link than the pages can provide for themselves through metadata.
Additionally Google says anchors also help the algorithm crawl pieces of content that don’t or can’t supply a copy on the internet for indexing. Such as: images, programs, apps and documents.
Keeping it real now about Google.
Before 2012, marketers used lots of exact match anchor keywords to manipulate the Google algorithm. By using keyword-rich anchors to point at your site, you could end up ranking in the first spot for keywords – even if your site wasn’t at all related to the anchor text topic.
If multiple sites chose the same anchor text to link to the same page, Google figured it must be related, so it should rank high!
Well, Google finally figured this out and released the first of its Penguin updates in April of 2012, which cracked down on anchor text specifically. A ton of marketers saw their rankings plummet and rushed to tweak their anchor strategy.
So what's a marketer to do:
Avoid Too Many Exact Match Anchors - it's not all that bad for SEO strategies. Google still pays close attention to anchor words, but if you are trying to manipulate the algorithm with anchors, you should expect Google to catch on.
In other words don't wear it out!!!
Keep in mind that Google adds new algorithms and updates existing algos all the time. One day, you could wake up and Google could have updated to detect the difference between branded and exact match anchor text for EMDs. You just never know.
It's best to keep your anchors relevant, avoid over-optimizing, and create a positive experience for Google users above all else.
Since Google is the top search engines, it's best to follow their rules because they have the power to index and rank your pages and this means traffic to your website when you're in the number one position on the first page in their search engine.
When you do what I have shared with you, then you're sure to be a hit with Google.
Coming up next in this series is "SEO - How to Optimize your anchor text"
Thank you for reading and I look forward to your comments and questions below.
Terri Pattio
Founder - Syndication Express - Blog Syndication
Social Media Strategist
MLM Coach/Mentor with a servant's heart
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