When you create links on your website, not only should your links use keyword anchor text, but the text around the links should also be related to your keywords. In other words, surround the link with descriptive text. This will give your links more authority.
The anchor text, link label or link title is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink. The words contained in the anchor text can determine the ranking that the page will receive by search engines. Since 1998, some web browsers have added the ability to show a tooltip for a hyperlink before it is selected. Not all links have anchor texts because it may be obvious where the link will lead due to the context in which it is used. Anchor texts normally remain below 60 characters. Different browsers will display anchor texts differently.
Anchor text usually gives the user relevant descriptive or contextual information about the content of the link’s destination. The anchor text may or may not be related to the actual text of the URL of the link. For example, a hyperlink to the Small Business Marketing Blog from Tucker Hosting
<a href=”http://blog.tuckerhosting.com”>Small Business Marketing Blog from Tucker Hosting</a>
Now that we are clear as to what anchor text is, let’s look at the logic as to why anchor text would/should have such a dramatic effect in the Google rankings for your keyword phrases and what exactly “appropriate” anchor text is.
Google decided to base a large portion of their algorithm on inbound links (links from other web pages) because of its initial breakthrough technology “PageRank”. Google, along with most other search engines credits each link as a vote for the webpage the link points to. In doing this, the website gives some of their “PageRank” to the other website. Analyzing all factors of a link “from” a webpage to decide the details of the link allows for much more specific information to be accumulate about the vote being cast.
There are really only the two above mentioned common elements: the webpage address you’re linking to (this does not have any alternatives), and the anchor text (which can be anything) based on the choice of the webmaster giving the link. It is because of this choice that the anchor text becomes essential. If there were no such thing as link popularity in the algorithm, the anchor text people would choose to link to a website with would be truly symbolic of that website’s content.
So, how will you use Anchor Text on your website?
