What is anchor text and why is it important?

The Internet, in basic terms, is a series of web pages connected by links. Every type of link allows for text. The anchor text is the visible clickable section in a link. In other words, it is the information that is placed within an anchor tag.

Example of anchor text:

<a href=”http://www.webfuel.ca/SEO-Site-Audit”>WebFuel SEO Site Audit</a>

In this example, the code indicates that the visible text is “WebFuel SEO Site Audit” (called the “anchor text” of the link). It is linked to the web page http://www.webfuel.ca/SEO-Site-Audit.

Where can anchor text be found?

• Internal or in-content links (links within your web pages)

• External or outbound links (iinks to other sites / web pages)

• Inbound or backlinks (links to your site / web pages)

Why are anchor text links important?

Words within a link, when done correctly, should describe the destination or landing page (where you will be sent when you click on the link). Since the goal of search engines is to provide highly relevant search results, the anchor text holds a lot of weight in search engine algorithms. This in turn, will determine ranking.

Don’t forget to use keywords! Are your anchor text links optimized?