The text of a link that can be seen and clicked on is called anchor text or link text. It is frequently underlined and usually appears in a different color than the text that surrounds it. The reader should know what to expect if they click on a link with good text.
The right anchor text helps search engines by providing them with context, which in turn increases the likelihood that someone will click on your link.
What is the appearance of an anchor text?
Visitors are enticed to click on the link by the description provided by the anchor text. Because the link text and the URL correlate, even search engines understand that the linked article is relevant.
Why are link texts important for SEO?
For SEO, links are very important: For example, in order to make your website’s structure clear to search engines, you need to add internal links. The link’s text makes it easier for search engines to understand your internal links; They get more context from it.
Google uses the link text to determine the subject of the linked page when you link to other content. Google will not be able to determine which article is most relevant to that topic and should rank for that keyphrase if the link text matches your keyphrase. Therefore, anchor text is a Google ranking factor.
Link text is important to your users as well as to search engines because it provides context for links. The anchor text explains the significance of a link and points them in the right direction. Therefore, including the focus keyphrase in the link text may cause users and search engines alike to become confused. As a result, you should actively steer clear of competing links.
Various types of link text
Anchor text is important for both your internal and external links. There are many ways that other websites can link to your content.
Link labels: a link like Yoast that uses your brand name as an anchor.
The actual URL: just the URL of your website without any text, such as https://yoast.com. Most of the time, this isn’t very helpful.Known as: referred to as Yoast.com.
Title of article or page: exactly match the title of the page, such as “What is anchor text?”
Specific keywords: Your focus keyword or phrase as the anchor text Keywords that partially match: making a link that can be read by using variations of your focus keyword.Relevant terms:
A keyword or keyphrase that is closely related to the primary one, but not a direct match.Common links: Try to steer clear of links that say “Click here” and “Read more.” Explain what a link is all about. If not, they are speculating.
Yoast SEO’s link focus keyphrase
check The Yoast SEO plugins for WordPress and Shopify include a link focus keyphrase check that can assist you in improving the text of your links. When it finds competing links in your text, this check will give you a warning.
When the anchor text of a link contains the focus keyphrase for which you want your page to rank, that link is considered a competing link. As a result, the link focus keyphrase check evaluates the anchor text of the links on a page and informs you of any competing links.
The check will also look for synonyms of your keyphrase if you have Yoast SEO Premium or Yoast SEO for Shopify.Let’s look at an illustration. Let’s say you’ve written an article about potato chips, and your keyphrase for the article’s focus is “potato chips.” In that same post, a link with the anchor text “potato chips” is considered to be a competing link.In the SEO analysis results, Yoast SEO displays a warning message whenever it finds a rival link.
What to do if Yoast SEO warns you that your text contains competing links?
How can you improve your anchor link texts? Improve your link texts by following the suggestions below!
1. Create a natural flow In general, writing should flow naturally.
Link texts are the same way. When incorporating links, ensure that they complement the text. Consider it in this way: If you find it difficult to incorporate a link into a sentence, it probably does not belong there. Avoid making your texts unnatural and difficult to read by placing it elsewhere. Therefore, while links are essential for SEO, you should ensure that they do not obscure your intended message.
2. Match the text of the link to the page’s content Matching the text of the link to the page’s content is a good practice when writing link texts.
If a reader clicks on the linked text, they should be aware of what to expect right away.For instance, the link text “content analysis in the Yoast SEO plugin” clearly directs readers to a post outlining the features of Yoast SEO for content analysis. What about the “meta description” link text?
Optimizing your text is discussed in the sentence to which the link belongs. Therefore, you would anticipate that the link will take you to a post regarding meta description optimization. And it accomplishes that.
3. Don’t swindle your readers.
You should not use links to trick your readers. For instance, if the text of your link says “potato chips,” it would be bad practice to direct the reader to a page for a car dealership.
4. Last but not least, make it clear to the reader that the text of the link can be clicked.
You can accomplish this by either underlining the link or using a different color for it.
5. Extra tip: put your entire keyphrase in quotes
Let’s say you’re writing an article about knitting and using the long-tail focus keyphrase. Yoast SEO may advise you to change any of those words from the focus keyphrase if you use them in a link text. You can avoid receiving a red bullet for the focus keyphrase in link check by putting the entire keyphrase in quotes. This will ensure that the analysis matches the whole phrase rather than just the individual words.
We all recognize the significance of internal links and anchor texts.
With its built-in internal link tool, Yoast SEO for WordPress makes it much simpler to locate relevant content for linking to on your website. Consider the anchor text whenever you include a relevant link in your article.
You can make it easier for both users and search engines to navigate your website if you carefully consider how and why you link these articles to improve your internal linking structure.Make an effort to only include links that truly benefit users in order to make the most of internal links. Write compelling anchor text for them so that readers are aware that this link has been carefully chosen to assist them in learning more. Don’t just link because you can. Make it useful and relevant. Also, please do not send spam!