What is an anchor?
Anchor, a.k.a. anchor text, anchor or link content, is text that appears on a website – for example, in the body of an article – and is highlighted in a different color. Anchor leads the user to another site when clicking on the highlighted text. In the code of the page, the anchor is located between the tags <and> and </a>. By hovering over it with the cursor, the user can see where he will be redirected when he clicks.
What are the characteristics of an anchor?
The anchor should contain a keyword phrase that matches the topic of the page to which the embedded link refers. This is because the content of the anchor is taken into account by the search engine algorithm when evaluating link quality. Anchors should look natural, harmonize with the content on the page and match the content of the linked page.
Types of anchors
There are several types of anchors, namely:
- Brand anchors – containing the name of the company or site to which they lead,
- URL – anchors the same as the anchored link to the site,
- exact match – anchors describing the positioned phrase,
- zero match – anchors that urge you to perform an action (call to action), e.g. read, see.
How to use anchors?
Anchors should be used for a specific purpose. They should be created to include relevant keywords , consistent with the theme of the page to which they direct. Their length is also key – the anchor should be short. Anchors should also be used in moderation, in not too many per page. It is also a good idea to distinguish them with a different color. It is advisable to avoid call to action anchors that do not reflect the topic of the linked site. All this is for the benefit of the user, who, after clicking on the anchor, should get to the page he expects. When it comes to anchors, quality is definitely more important than quantity. In external linking, it is also recommended to use different anchors, especially if they lead to the same page.
Anchors vs SEO
Anchors involve external and internal linking, and linking has a big impact on SEO and positioning. Anchor allows Google’s robots to navigate through a selected site, determining and recording what the page is about. This information is later used by Google to show the user the best-matched results to their query. So anchors, like many other factors, affect where a site ranks in search results. Since an anchor can also contain keywords (the user’s query), its role even becomes doubly important.
