What is anchor text and how a good anchor text can effect on SEO?

What is Anchor Text:
Anchor text is a phrase that is clicked to go from one web page to another, it is often appears to be blue in the text, by using HTML or CSS you can change the color of it, anchor text is also known as a link tag. The words that site owners use in the anchor text play a major role in determining the site position in the search engine results page such as Google, YouTube and etc. There are different types of anchor texts, such as the Exact Match anchor text, or the Phrase Match anchor text and other types are mentioned in the following parts of this article. We will describe that varied search engines display anchor text differently, using the types of anchor text in the right place can help the linked page to rank those keywords in search engines.

Types of Anchor Text:
Exact Match:
Exact match anchor text is one of the most important types of anchor text which the link we choose may look exactly like the title of the article we are linking to, because it contains keywords. For example, the “Anchor Text Types” is linked to the page related to the anchor text.

Branded:
When the brand name is used as anchor text. For example, the “ Instagram ” anchor text that links to Instagram itself or “Google” anchor text which links to google main page.

Random:
A specific and random word may be selected. In other words, using keywords which are not related to the content. “Click here” and “for example” are some of the examples of random anchor text.

Phrase Match:
Using main keyword in company with other words to rank high on google search results . In other words, if the anchor text contains keywords which are exactly relevant and reflect the page which it is linked to. For instance: Dwell time link building that linked to a page which its content is about dwell time.

Partial Match:
The keywords may be used with a slight change in the linked page. In other words, this kind of anchor text contains a different content which includes keywords that describe the subject of the linked page.

Image Links:
Alt Text is displayed when the image is not loaded.

Naked URL:
It is untitled or in other words the URL is used as the link.

Features of anchor text:
1. They should not be public.

2. Don't use keywords in the anchor text in an unnatural and excessive way.

3. The conciseness and usefulness of anchor text is very effective in search engine optimization (SEO).

4. The anchor text must be relevant to the page which is linked to.

Spammy anchor text:
This kind of anchor text is a link to an anchor text which is not related to the page that exists on it or the page that it links to. Spammy anchor text is one of the key methods used in black hat SEO

Significance of anchor text:
SEO is a complex process made up of thousands of small details, anchor text being one of these small yet essential details. While the anchors usually link web pages, they can also begin downloads and document links such as PDFs. That's why you just need to click on the anchors of trusted sites. While anchor text has been around since the very beginning of the internet, many webmasters still do not follow the best practices while writing them. Optimized anchor text for internal and external links can benefit SEO in several ways.

Effect of Good Anchor Text on SEO:
Google has always been using anchor words to find out about the webpages to rank these webpages for the correct keywords. Original Google document has a complete section for the anchor text only. As per Google, anchor text provides better objective and relative descriptions about links than pages alone can provide metadata. The best way to use Anchor Text is to produce quality and useful content, is using different forms of anchor text in your site's link building and avoid buying bulk backlinks . Backlink anchor must come from unbiased external sources. Anchors help the Google algorithm crawl parts of content that it cannot offer an online copy for indexing like programs, images, apps, documents, and databases. It can also tell readers where they can find more information.

Here is the effect of a good anchor text on SEO.

Good Online Presence:
High-quality SEO optimized anchor texts are essential to building an excellent online presence. Search engines use these anchor texts to discover new sites and determine the ranking of the web page.

Helpful for Search Engine as well as Users:
SEO anchor text in the internal links can assist search engines in understanding the site's structure and help the users comprehend if this is their required link to click. Anchor text can help inbound links rank higher for specific search terms.

Higher Rankings:
Anchor text can be a fantastic SEO tool when used correctly. It can help you rank higher in search engines by being descriptive and useful to search engines and readers.

A good anchor text provides excellent SEO benefits and indicates search engines the importance of the page linked to the anchor text topic. Just make sure you find natural and readable ways to insert anchor text on the webpage, even if that only means including the page title.

Important points of link building:
Before mentioning the points that should be taken into consideration, you first need to know about the Penguin algorithm, because this algorithm examines the anchor text and links, so you need to know what the Penguin algorithm considers as errors and penalties.

What is a Penguin Algorithm?
Every year, new algorithms are provided by Google for site analysis. In 2012, Google introduced a new one called Penguin Algorithm for spam detection, which could directly distinguish natural link building from unnatural linking. This algorithm examines web pages at different times of the day, if it recognizes signs of spam linking or other unnatural methods, the site will be penalized. The Penguin algorithm is still working, and it is an important part of Google algorithms.

Now that you know what a penguin algorithm is, you should pay attention to the following points:

· Branded anchor text must be used but don't overuse it.

· Do not forget the quality of the links and try to get the links from reputable and valuable sites which are approved by Google.

· Do not use only one type of anchor text and try to use different types of anchor text such as Partial Match, Exact Match, Phrase Match and other types of anchor text.

· Excessive use of Exact Match anchor text and not using Naked URL anchor text is also unnatural and can lead to site spam.

More points about anchor text:
1- It is better to remove links with commercial anchor text, but you must pay attention to the fact that you should replace any low quality anchor text that you have deleted with a quality one, so that the credibility and value of your website is not diminished.

2- Avoid writing anchor text using long words that distract the user from the main purpose of the search.

3- Choose the format of the links different from text or bold the links.

4- Do not get links from low quality and spammed sites and always choose reputable and valuable websites to get links.

5- Use a lot of branded anchor texts

Last word:
By generating useful content, make other sites link to your website and do not be afraid of the anchor text type they use, even if they use the Naked URL anchor text , that causes no problem in increasing your website ranking because it is completely natural, but the lack of anchored texts such as Naked URLs or a huge number of similar and specific anchor texts is considered as an unnatural process. At the end, it's better not to forget using any kind of anchor text.