Does Anchor Text Still Matter?

Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Sunday, 12 of October , 2008 at 6:53 am

If you’ve noticed that certain web pages have lost search rank in the last couple of months then you may be wondering why. According to Blogstorm, it’s because Google has devalued anchor text in its algorithms. But according to Google Webmaster Central, one of the two most important, quality inbound links counted are links with good, relevant anchor text. The other is a link where the URL is hyperlinked.

If the anchor text has been devalued then why is Google saying that anchor text links are one of the two most important types of inbound links? My guess is because that anchor text is still important, but it’s not - as Blogstorm points out - as important as it was a year ago as part of a search engine optimization strategy.

We know that Google is constantly updating its algorithms. It’s possible that this may be a measure to combat Google bombs. It could also be an attempt to combat paid links without hurting sites that legitimately use natural linking methods and their inbound link recipients.

If you’ll look at the diagram on Google’s blog post, it seems to say that the two types of important links are fairly equal. It doesn’t say that one is more important than the other. But if the same blog post were written a year then I’d guess that it might show that anchor text links are given more weight than links where the website’s URL is the link. Am I reading too much into this?

Nevertheless, it does seem as if anchor text has been given a little less weight lately than it has in the past.

                      Category: Link Building