Anchor Text: The High Value Of In-Text Links

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

Search engines have long valued textual links. That’s why anchor text is one of the best ways to build your internal links. Sure, you can – and should – have a menu bar, either at the top of your web pages, on the side, or both. But a menu bar only takes you so far. I highly recommend in text links using keywords that will take your visitors from one page to the next.

You don’t want to overdo this though. Don’t put too many in at one time. One or two per page is the most you want to include. Otherwise, it will look like search engine spam.

So what’s an example of anchor text? Let’s say your keyword is search engine optimization. If you are building a website about Internet marketing and you have a page on PPC, another page on Affiliate Marketing, a third page on e-zine marketing, and a page on search engine optimization then those are the keywords that you will use for your respective pages. On each of your pages that aren’t about search engine optimization, you’ll want to include an in-text link to your search engine optimization page using those three words together as your link text, just like in this sentence.

Search engines view anchor text links as more valuable because they occur right in the middle of your content as you are communicating about your topic. Being surrounded by related content makes the link appear more natural and search engines like natural links. The link is said to anchor the text, or ground it if you will, to your page, making your content more solid. The reason you want to use a keyword – preferably a keyword that is important to the page you are linking to – is because that keyword tells readers and spiders what the page being linked to is all about. It serves a dual purpose: First, relevance, and secondly, a doorway for your targeted traffic.

There you have it. That’s the low down on anchor text. Now get out there and anchors away!