SEO is a complex strategy that comprises multiple components and anchor text is one of them. Anchor texts offer important information to the reader and search engines and navigate them to another page or site. They can also help them both understand what the site is all about. By improving the user experience with this information, these pieces of text can actually impress the search engines, which can go a long way in improving your site’s rankings. But while anchor texts can boost your rankings, they can cripple them as well, all if you happen to over-optimize them. In such a case, Google will make out your intention to spam the system and may even levy a penalty on the site. On the other hand, some smart anchor text hacks can enable you to get quick SEO results and sustain them as well. Let us list the ones that work.
Hack #1: Ensure relevance with the content
Always bear in mind that you have to act for the best interest of the searchers. After all, that’s what Google does and expects any website to do as well. The key lies in ensuring relevance between anchor texts and content because it passes over the best experience to the audience. Unless there is relevance, you will experience high bounce rate along with low average time on site. This will obviously translate into lower rankings. Additionally, poor UX elevates the risk of penalty for the site as well. So the first hack is to bring relevance if it isn’t already there.
Hack #2: Have relevance in backlinks as well
Adjusting the anchor text to improve your ranking is only half the work done. If you want the backlinks to be SEO-friendly, you will also need to make sure that there is the relevance between the pages being linked. Again, this can make all the difference to the user experience because they would want to land on a relevant and related website once they click the link. If the site has links from unrelated and spammy websites, even the best of anchor texts will not yield results.
Hack #3: Don’t forget diversity
When it comes to getting quick and sustainable results with your SEO strategy, you cannot overemphasize the significance of a natural backlink profile. With its algorithmic updates, the search engine is now as smart as humans and can make out natural links and profiles. This is best done by using a mix of different types of anchor text. You can go through https://seojet.net/blog/anchor-text-ratio-seo/ to decide the ideal mix. While you must have key phrase anchors and exact keyword match, include other types like branded, generic, blended anchors and more. Make sure that you do it contextually to make them appear natural.
Hack #4: Focus on shorter length
As a rule of thumb, you should have the shortest possible anchor text. Although there is no restriction on length, the brief is always better. It enables you to describe the linked site accurately to Google and also perks up the interest of the users so that they usually end up clicking it. If you are able to nail the purpose and relevance with fewer words, you certainly have a winner that can boost up your ranking without much work. While short is sweet, also make sure that it appears natural when you read it.
Hack #5: Avoid too many keywords
When you just start with a website, creating backlinks having anchor text with the target keywords may seem like a logical action. However, excessive keyword-dense anchor texts can tarnish your backlink profile over a period of time. Moreover, using exact match anchor text was a practice that SEO professionals used in the past for manipulating the backlink profiles and reaching the top of SERPs. After the Penguin update, Google can easily discover anchor text manipulation while BERT gets even better with contextualizing natural language. Using synonyms instead of exact keywords, therefore, is a smart hack to climb to the top without fearing penalties.
Hack #6: Check your link profile consistently
Anchor text optimization and backlink building are not a one-time task. You need to monitor the impact of new backlinks and keep track of old ones at all stages. Fortunately, there are tools that enable you to monitor your entire backlink profile, regardless of the number of links it has. You can identify the ones that are good for your site’s health and also the ones that are hurting it. Further, you can also check the anchor text being used in each of the links. Once you are aware of the good and the bad, it becomes easy to get rid of the bad ones. Also, a clear idea of the anchor text of the good ones gives you the right direction for the future.
Hack #7: Avoid over-optimizing in the future
Consistently looking back and optimizing your profile does give you an advantage in terms of sustainable SEO rankings. But it is always wise to follow a smart approach as you move ahead. By now, you will probably be aware of the importance of anchor text optimization. So you must make sure that you steer clear of over-optimizing in the future for better results with lesser work. Moreover, this will also help you manage the risk of Google penalties, which can ruin all the good work you may have done over the years.
Anchor text optimization may require some work and a lot of smart thinking but all the efforts you invest promise to be worthwhile. It helps you climb up the search ranking quickly and sustain your position up there, which surely gives you a winning advantage in the competitive landscape. On the other hand, going slack with it can have a dire impact, particularly if you get a Google penalty. It can be a huge price to pay because climbing up after being penalized is a real challenge. So it always makes sense to go the extra mile with your SEO anchor text strategy to stay aligned throughout your website’s life span.