Glenn Madden 12/25/2019
Anchor text SEO: how to optimize them. In this short guide, we will see what are the best practices for optimizing your link anchors for your SEO.
What is anchor text links?
The anchor text or link anchor is simply the clickable text of a link like this link to another section on this page.
EXAMPLE: Long-Tailed Keywords You can also link to other pages and to sections on that page.
Anchor Text HTML
TIP: If you have problems with your destination of the anchor being concealed in your header then place your anchor one paragraph before where you actually want to go stop.
Anchor text: a relevance indicator for Google
Google will analyze the various anchor texts of a site to try to understand how it can be interesting for the user.
For example, if your site includes several links with the anchor text “swimwear”, it is very likely that Google will deduce that your site corresponds to the universe of swimwear. It will therefore take it into account in its reference.
Before Penguin…
Until 2012, to position yourself more easily on a keyword, it was enough to send links with a link anchor containing exactly this keyword and repeat the operation to increase its chances of climbing in the SERP. (source: www.lafabriquedunet.fr)
… And After Penguin
With the arrival of Penguin in 2012, the situation has changed. The algorithm is launched in the hunt for manipulation of backlinks. It closely examines the quality of your anchor texts and if they don’t seem realistic, if they are spammed, or if they are systematically composed of the same keywords, you risk being penalized.
Our advice to distribute and optimize your anchor texts?
Find the right anchor distribution for your niche
According to many SEO specialists, the ideal distribution of your anchor texts should be as follows:
- Brand anchors and URL anchors: 50% (examples: www.tradur.com, http://tradur.com, www.tradur.com,…)
- Topic anchors: 25% (example: “anchor text seo”)
- Targeted keywords and long tail keywords: 10% (example: html for anchor text)
- Miscellaneous anchors: 15% (examples: “click here”, “find out more”, …)
But this distribution is only an indication, it is up to you to choose the distribution that best suits your specific case. To do this, do a search for your target keyword and put the results in a backlink checker like Ahrefs. You will then get the distribution of anchor texts that Google is looking for. Then carefully observe the distribution ratio of anchor texts of the 5 best rankings of your competitors and build your link-building strategy by also building on these results.
Take into account the evolution of AI and voice search
With the advent of artificial intelligence, new forms of requests such as voice search are becoming increasingly important. And this leads to changes in the use of keywords, and therefore, anchor texts.
To increase your chances of climbing in the SERP, it is not only necessary to understand the intentions of the users but also to personalize your articles to accelerate searches using AI-like voice search. For example, the number of links with a city name in the anchor text has a direct impact on local positioning in Google, provided that they are used in good proportions throughout the site.
Link your anchor texts to deep links
The year 2020 should be marked by a higher requirement of algorithms regarding the use of links associated with your anchor texts. By closely examining your inbound and outbound links, they will be able to assess the quality and relevance of your mesh. For this, it is preferable to associate your anchor texts with deeper links, which go beyond the home page or the product pages.
Also, remember to take care of the internal content attached to your anchor texts: the more quality they are and enjoy good authority, the more your links will be deemed credible and relevant by algorithms.
And the same goes for the external links attached to your anchor text: the more they come from authoritative sites and produce good content, the more the link of your anchor text will be considered by Google.
Choose long tail keywords
The long keywords allow you to create more natural links with anchor texts that are relevant and catchy and benefit from weaker competition than generic keywords. Here you will find information to optimize your keyword research.
In conclusion, for Google to consider your site as worthy of interest to the user, it will be particularly attentive:
- the way you distribute your anchors,
- the choice of keywords you use,
- the authority of pages linked to your links,
- and taking into account the evolution of AI and voice search in your link building.
By the time you prepare the SEO strategy for your website, you have surely heard about the long tail (or long-tail in English) several times. What is this concept? What is the difference between generic keywords? How do you find these expressions? How to apply this strategy? Here are all the answers to become a pro of the long tail!
Definition of the long tail in SEO
In the context of natural referencing, the long tail designates all the keywords which include expressions made up of several words. The long tail is thus made up of keywords with low search volumes and which are likely to be less competitive on search engines. These keywords generally each attract a few visitors, but the accumulation can represent a significant part of the overall traffic of a website.
The difference between generic and long tail keywords
To make it very simple, we can differentiate at least two levels of keywords according to search volumes, competition, and qualification. What interest will you tell me? Above all, this allows you to choose the keywords that will be most interesting for your site and where it will be the smartest to concentrate your efforts to obtain the best return on investment.
The generic keywords are those with the highest search volumes and are generally very competitive. We can add to this that these keywords are poorly qualified since they target a very broad issue. To illustrate, we can take a look at the keywords “boiler maintenance” which is a query estimated at 4400 searches per month. The fact that there are a lot of advertisers who have bought Adwords is already an indication of the big competition on this query. Regarding qualification, even if a small part of Internet users may be looking for a direct quote, the vast majority are probably looking for information.
The long-tail keywords for their part of the much lower search volumes are generally less competitive and much more skilled. Using our example of a boiler, we can take the request “gas boiler maintenance price” this time. The search volume is much lower (320). On the other hand, competition is already more acceptable and we know better here the intention of the internet user who is already more likely to be converted.
How to find long tail keywords – Google search suggestions
If you want to position yourself on Google using the long tail strategy, why not use the suggestions that Google gives us directly? Just enter the keyword of your basic theme in the search engine and you will see that the “completion” feature of Google shows you a list of very interesting suggestions at the bottom of the page.
Associated Research
Another good “hint” left by Google to find long-tail keywords is the searches associated with your first search. These are related searches that are done by other users on Google based on what you did at that time. You will therefore see these very interesting suggestions appear at the bottom of the results page.
Use Local SEO
Many companies that offer services or sell products in a city or geographic area do not always take into account the power of local SEO. However, many mobile devices and browsers such as Chrome can know your location and allow Google to adjust the result pages. It is therefore quite obvious that you can add the name of your city at the end of your strategic keywords in order to be better positioned in local searches.
Keyword research tools
To find keyword ideas for your long tail, there is a multitude of free and paid specialty tools.
Google Keyword Planner is a good choice to find keywords but gets a little confusing to dig into the details unless you are actually setting up a campaign.
The best free alternative is Ubersuggest which is managed by Neil Patel. From a first generic keyword, you will have hundreds of ideas for other long-tail keywords that you can use. In addition to that, the tool allows you to have search volumes and a competition indicator which is obviously very practical!
Analyze competitors
The objective is above all to analyze at least three or four of your competitors to go and “sting” them with some ideas of long-tail keywords on which they are already positioned and to do so better than them!
How to use the long tail on your site?
It may sound silly, but many articles don’t actually explain how to apply the long tail once you have a good list of keywords. The answer is very simple: use them in your content. The first thing to do to be positioned on Google is to forget about Google. It may seem paradoxical, but be aware that your content is primarily intended for people. The best way to create interesting content is to put yourself in the shoes of the Internet user and to answer any questions he may have about a problem.
If we repeat the request “gas boiler maintenance price”, one way of processing it will be to produce content of this type:
- A price table with different scenarios
- A paragraph “Why maintain your boiler”
- A paragraph “The advantages of a maintenance contract”
- A paragraph “The stages of boiler maintenance by a professional”
- A link to a quote form
Of course, I don’t know anything about boilers, but by seeing the best-referenced pages, you can already have an idea of what to include in the article. The goal is to respond as comprehensively to a request and to have the most content possible.
To finish on the long tail
I have described the simple steps that work in terms of SEO for my sites and that allow me to generate thousands of visits every day. So there is no reason why it should not work for you. With a little work and a lot of patience, you will be able to gain more visitors and especially ones who will become conversions.
As you produce your pages for your keywords, don’t forget to regularly measure your rankings and the traffic obtained for these pages so that you can optimize your content and your strategy. Finally, don’t forget either that Anchor Text is also an important factor for SEO that should not be overlooked.