Anchor text: what it is and why it is important for links

Let’s continue with the insights dedicated to the basics of SEO, and in particular we still focus on links and the proper management of these elements, fundamental not only for sites, but for the Network itself, as we said days ago. Today’s topic is about anchor text, which is a decisive part, and often neglected, of the strategy of optimizing both external and internal links.

What is an anchor text

Let’s start with the technical definitions: the anchor text is the word or group of words that lead with a click to a link to another online resource, the portion of text visible on the page linked to the link, and is useful for providing information about the link to users and search engines.

What are anchor texts for

The anchor texts, as we were saying, are useful to prepare users and search engine to click on the link and, therefore, to the content that is in the new page. The first and main function of the anchor text is therefore to provide an added and understandable context to the link, which can simplify the interpretation of the linked page.

How to create an anchor text in HTML

Creating an anchor text is extremely simple and, in practice, all editors allow you to easily insert a link to a text portion using icons (the classic with the chain link, present on WordPress, but also on Word and so on). From a computer point of view, in HTML the anchor text simply appears with the string <a href=”https://www.example.com”> Test Text </a>, where the words “Test Text” will usually appear in different colors or highlighted with underline, depending on the site settings.

Why anchor texts are important

Coming to the issues more strictly related to SEO and page optimization, the anchor text has a significant role (still) for the ranking on search engines, because Google uses the anchor text to evaluate the context of the linked page. For example: if I link to a page using the words “dog cookies”, the search engine will assume that the landing page addresses that topic; if another site also uses the same anchor text for another link, Google will strengthen its hypothesis and increase the chances for the linked site to rank high for that keyword.

Obviously, the one described is just an easy example and the management of Google anchor texts is much more complex, also because over the years it has been made a manipulative and forced use of these elements, which resulted in a reconsideration of anchor text as a ranking factor. Compared to the past, in fact, the anchor text is still fundamental in a backlink, but it is also an element that is very exposed to incorrect use that can lead to penalization of sites for spam or over-optimization.

Anchor texts in link building

The reference to backlinks is not causal, because anchor text is used a lot especially in link building campaigns, because it is believed that Google pays particular attention to these portions of text in ranking ratings. However, as we said talking about link building errors, a non-strategic approach to this activity can cause damage to the site, rather than advantages, because there are frequent cases of too optimized anchor texts, or disconnected from the on-page context of the destination, and so on.

There is another inaccuracy that often occurs in the management of the anchor text, and it concerns above all the internal links to the site: the absence of the anchor text or, better to say, the lack of care towards this element. In this case, to be penalized is above all the usability of the site and the link, because users do not immediately understand the usefulness of the linked reference resource, and at the same time you can lose a potential boost to the ranking.

The types of anchor text

It is important to have an idea about the va