SEO professionals are constantly publishing articles explaining how to choose the best anchor text for a backlink or inbound link. If you've done any research at all, you know that this isn't the easiest process in the world. There are tons of things to think about when it comes to choosing anchor text-keywords, landing pages, competition and search volume, etc.-so it can get overwhelming. It's clear that a great and well-researched keyword is going to get you far, but there is one huge anchor text rule that companies need to remember: Appearing natural is key.
How to Use Anchor Text to Create a Natural Link Portfolio
Unfortunately, this idea that variation is important often gets trampled and hidden by those other, bigger anchor text ideas discussed above. You want your link profile to seem natural, and therefore you need variation. To make a long story short: Keywords aren't always going to get you the results you want.
Using certain anchor texts will make it appear as though you aren't trying to build backlinks, but rather they are happening naturally (after all, a website is most likely not going to use a perfect keyword when they naturally want to link back to your website). A few of these terms you may want to consider using include: here, more info, website, learn more, click here, etc.
There are a few situations where you may want to try this tactic:
- If you offer a lot of guest articles. "A lot" means at least one every other day, if not more. If you don't offer guest articles all too often, it might be beneficial to just stick with your keyword terms. There is value in using keywords as anchor text, which you can learn more about here.
- If you get penalized. If you're finding that you're getting penalized by Google or losing rankings fast, take a look at your link profile. Does everything seem to be perfectly optimized? If so, you may want to consider varying up that anchor text.
- If your site is stationary. If you're trying and trying to help move your site up on a Google SERP and nothing seems to be working, this could very well be the ticket that you need. Again, this isn't something that usually gets the spotlight, but that doesn't mean it's not the little, important thing that your site needs.
Some companies immediately think "but nobody is going to search for the term 'more info,'" and they're right, so the benefit isn't as obvious. However, understanding the logic behind this idea is important. If you have a staff of writers working on link building, both for backlinks or even just optimizing your site internally, then it's probably time to start diversifying your link profile. It's as simple as that.
Do you have experience using these types of anchor text? Have you found this tactic to be successful? Let us know your story and your thoughts in the comments below.
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