The importance of anchor text

published by Gary in On Page SEO with 3 Comments

The anchor text is the text that appears within the linking tag, that is, in <a href=”http://www.phoenixrealm.com”>SEO and Web Design Blog</a>, “SEO and Web Design” is the anchor text of the link. The anchor text is very important because it tells the human readers as well as the search engines what sort of information the link contains. So if you are planning to request an inbound link from another website, make sure the webmaster uses the anchor text appropriate to your website. Similar if you are linking to another website, make sure you use the anchor text that rightly represents that website.

But is it very difficult to use the right anchor text from within your web pages? No, it is not. Take for instance these two anchor texts:

1. Read great tips and tricks on seo and web design
2. Read great tips and tricks on seo and web design here

You can easily make out that the first example is more relevant than the second one because it states exactly what the link is about.

You can also use anchor text while using your normal copy on your blog or website. For instance, you can link to various pages whenever particular keywords occur in your web page copy. If you have a page that talks about external stylesheets, if you mention the phrase “external stylesheets” you can use it as an anchor text and then link to the page containing information external stylesheets; for instance, “External stylesheets are always preferred over on-page CSS styling.”

Anchor text is an important part of your SEO strategy, use them judiciously and you’ll reap great benefits.

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This entry was posted on Friday, June 22nd, 2007 at 5:48 pm and is filed under On Page SEO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.