How to Optimize Your Anchor Text Strategy for SEO?

Strategy for SEO: Like other forms of marketing, SEO tools have its own strategies for effective results. The rules in case of search engine optimization are far away from the traditional ways, primarily because of the unique nature of digital interactions between a company and its customers. It is a fast moving process, where the impact, positive or negative, can be seen almost in the real time. Thus, time available for decision making and strategizing is far less, and have to be much more effective and result oriented.

In SEO, keywords play a vital role for achieving the desired results. It is based on the keywords used and their frequencies that a product and information related to it can be discovered online more number of times. If a product is visible more frequently, chances of coming across interested customers are also enhanced manifold. Thus, the possibility of achieving the sales target and generating higher revenue also increases.

Optimization of Keywords

How the keywords contribute to SEO is very simple. First, the relevant keywords have to be identified properly. This has to be done keeping in mind the target market segment. If the same product is well-known in two different markets by different nomenclature, the same also has to be noted and the right one used. Sometimes, for entirely new products, the nomenclature is fed to the social media using hash tags, after which the same is used as a keyword.

After the choice of the right keyword is made, it is time to use it properly. The general feeling is that the higher the frequency of using the keywords, the more is the visibility achieved through SEO. The search engines use the product name that an individual feeds into it to find out the number of matches across the digital contents available over the internet. The content where a higher number of matches occur appears towards the top of the SEO results.

Does high frequency of keywords ensure top view?

As we said at the beginning, SEO strategy is not just different from the traditional approach; it is also evolving very fast. Initially, the higher the number of keywords, the more was the assurance of appearing towards the top of a search engine result. This resulted in extensive overuse of the keywords in several contents that not only degraded the quality of the SEO results but also evoked disgust from the users. Over time, the data could be gathered and analyzed, and further research by the search engines based on the findings brought in slight changes in the SEO strategies.

Now, many of the search engines do not go only by the frequency of the keywords; they also look into the relevance as well as their distribution over any content. Thus, keyword density has become an important parameter to decide upon the relevance of any website in response to a search. A logical and even distribution of keywords across the content also plays a major role in its positioning in a SEO result.

Why being near the top matters?

The net users have many options and little time. An average net user won’t go beyond the top three or five links before they change the searching keyword. It is therefore important to reflect among the top 5 SEO results for any website to increase its visibility and possibility of business. In order to achieve this, the use of anchor text has also taken a leading role.

What is anchor text?

Strategy for SEO: Anchor text is the blue colored word one can find in any content, by clicking on which one can open the desired website without further search. It is basically a hyperlink embedded in one of the keywords in the content. Again, there has to be a strategy of distributing the anchor text in a write-up.

Generally, there are five ways to place an anchor text, which are:

  • Exact match- one of the keywords is used for hyperlink.
  • Partial match- a variation of one of the keywords used as anchor text.
  • Branded- a brand name is used.
  • Naked link- the website URL is placed as anchor text.
  • Generic- A generic term, like ‘Click here’ is used.
  • Images- an image placed in the content is provided the hyperlink.

Anchor text density

Like for a keyword, in case of anchor text too, the density plays an important part in reflecting in a SEO. If we go for increasing the anchor text density abruptly, a search engine can note it as suspicious or of lower relevance. Thus, distributing the anchor text evenly becomes a vital criterion. Also, one has to be aware of the overuse of the anchor text as well. It is best to optimize the use and place an anchor text only once or twice in a page.

FAQs: Strategy for SEO

Q1. What is anchor text optimization in SEO?

A2. The blue colored text that can often be seen in an online page is the anchor text. The blue colored text has the hyperlink embedded in it by clicking on which one can directly visit the website of relevance. It is desired to avoid generic words as anchor texts and instead, use one of the keywords that have higher relevance to the webpage.

Q2. How does anchor text affect SEO?

A2. Anchor text is an important parameter for a search engine ranking, and optimized use of it can improve the SEO ranking of a webpage. It also is the point by clicking on which the reader can instantly get more information on the webpage or product. The instant passage to more relevant information makes anchor text an important part of SEO.

Q3. What is optimal anchor text distribution ratio?

A3. Anchor text, like keywords, cannot be overused in a webpage leading to reduction of its ranking by a search engine.There is no fixed strategy for anchor text optimization, but the general rule is to restrict it to 50% of the total keywords used. Another more effective approach is not to use the anchor text more than once per 500 words. For a page with a lengthy content, it can be used twice, and for pages with short to moderate content, it can be restricted to once only.

Q4. Do anchor links affect SEO?

A4. Anchor links provide a larger gamut of information about any webpage or product at one click. Thus, they are very helpful for the users. However, in order to avoid confusion, it is better to limit the frequency of anchor links to a minimal.

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