What are Branded Anchor Texts? Everything You Need To Know 

As the world is evolving daily especially in the digital space, people have been forced to follow suit. The acceptable format needed to rank changed drastically in the year 2012 with Penguin algorithm. In order to get your website to rank online, you have to do more than absentmindedly shoving your content with anchor texts.

Apart from using readable and great content for your website, you also have to invest in important and relevant anchor texts that would put your web on top. Also, you need to understand how SEO ( Search Engine Optimization) works in order to properly structure your writing.

Another thing you want to carefully take note of is the search engine robots that are responsible for determining the quality of your content. Google has to know that your website can and should be trusted which can be known through referring links pointing to your site and your back-links. These links would also give you a high possibility of a great back-link with the right anchor text.

 

That is why anchor texts are needed to help your website rank.

What Branded Anchor Text Is?

Branded anchor text is the clickable text that includes a brand name. This type of anchor text makes it easy for brands to link to their homepage. It is a SEO marketing strategy used to create brand awareness among internet users and publicizing the brand name.

Another remarkable thing that branded texts do for your content is that it makes Google to recognize any links of public figures associated with your brand. This is the best method to avoid being flagged for spam. However, users of this kind of anchor texts have to also be careful not to over-optimize for keyword high contents.

Of all the anchor texts, this kind of anchor text and should cover about 70% of a great SEO content. Based on research and observation, it has been noted that contents with around this percentage of anchor texts are more likely to rank on search engines.

For example

• Alexis Sanchez,  an ambassador for Nike said
• Samsung
• As Forbes News reports

7 Other Types Of Anchor Text

An anchor text is the noticeable and clickable text in hyperlinks display that is used to link to another location or document. This is often blue and underlined. A good anchor link must be relevant to your content and search engines.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) needs anchor texts that are recognizable and easy to determine the topic’s keywords. Effective anchor texts give your readers an inclination to what they should expect when they visit your website. They are extremely relevant because they are like a promise to the reader concerning what to expect.

Apart from branded texts that involve a brand name and building awareness, there are other types of anchor text. Although branded texts are the commonest types for great SEO content, there are others that contribute massively to optimizing your content.

Generic Anchor Text

These types of anchor text are used to direct users to a particular link or area of the content. It is not related to the whole content and it is a common anchor text that is used by most writers. Keywords and brands are not found in this anchor text type at all.

This kind of text anchor does not use any word referencing a keyword, however, users have to infer the clues in the context from surrounding information. Generic anchor text includes actionable words or call to action which are powerful for getting customer attention. It is an important part of writing online copy.

For Example 

• Visit this website
• Click here
• Follow this link
• Read more
• More info
• Check this page
• Go here

Exact Match Anchor Text

Exact match anchor as the word implies is the exact keyword that your targeted page is linking to. This anchor text type is a precise one that does not include variations or use words that might be similar to it. This is a text that you can just copy and paste without altering any part of the text. Although overusing it makes Google start suspecting the website and it reduces trust overflow.

However, exact match anchors used to be most popular before Penguin’s upgrade in 2012. Writers used to manipulate their writings and overload their works with this type of text but now this attracts a spam penalty. Using exact match words should be minimized in your writing so that it is not keyword high or over- optimized.

For Example 

• Cheap shoes
• Search engine optimization(SEO)
• Anchor texts
• Link building
• Exact match
• Brand name

Partial Match Anchor Text

Partial match anchors are anchor texts that solve the regular problem of exact match anchors by making it less suspicious. It still includes the exact match words, however, it is prone to variations or is made to appear around other words.

A good online content invests heavily in any avenue to reduce chances of spam penalty from search engines. The partial match anchor is concerned with that as it includes keyword phrases that are more generic and random. It also helps in making the content natural enough to catch the attention of readers.

For Example 

• Get a catchy brand name for your business targeting “brand name”
• Use relevant internal links for your content targeting “internal links”
• Businesses rank with the right anchor texts targeting “anchor texts”
• Link building in relevant SEO contents targeting “link building”

Naked URL Link Text

This is the best anchor text for search engines because it guarantees that websites are more unlikely to use spam keywords. Naked link text assures Google that the writers of a web content are making the content as suitable as possible for human beings and not only search engines.

However, among writers this is considered the ugliest looking anchor text because it does not look attractive. Although it is a URL pasted in the copy that is very clickable. Wikipedia uses this system a lot for back-linking. Another remarkable thing about naked texts is that they can link to the home page of a brand.

For Example

• www.google.com
• https://nptmarket.com
• https://localseori.com

Image Anchor Links

What Google reads as your image anchor link is the ALT text that is usually added to an image description. Google interprets it to be your link that helps in diversifying your anchor text profile. Although some types of anchor are important to your content, however, you also have to be flexible enough to try and use different variations of the anchor text to get your web content to rank.

For Example

• Cheap Nike shoes for winter
• Recent phones in 2020
• Samsung phone buying guide

LSI Anchor Texts

Although SEO deals with search engine robots, Google is concerned also with the human response to a content. This is why the LSI anchor text is crucial to making your content as natural as possible. It deals with related keyword synonyms and adds words that internet users might search alongside the normal keyword.

LSI stands for Latent Semantic Indexing. What LSI does is to make your content descriptive enough for readers so that even with the presence of keywords, readers would still find it relatable. This is the anchor text that deals with the highest number of possible keyword variations that Google can still read. Using this also helps to diversify your anchor link text profile.

For Example

• If your target keyword is “SEO”, some LSI keywords would be “what is SEO”, “how does SEO work”.

By using this text anchor, Google can easily bring out your site for internet users that are searching for related topics. Also, as a writer you can find out the LSI anchor by just checking on Google the variations of that keyword that is most searched.

Long Tail Anchor Text

Among the different types of anchor, this is the most descriptive of them all. They use keywords that are not so popular and they are longer. This type of anchor text covers for users who search for longer and more descriptive keywords online. They are the most target type online.

It also includes other keywords that might not be as relevant as the main keyword but still useful nonetheless. People can also use this type of anchor text for title tags, it works effectively for them.

For Example

• Why fatty food consumption is bad for the body
• Find out more about branded text on this site

Does Anchor Text Matter?

You must be wondering why people should even have to worry themselves about anchor text and the optimization process. However, the relevance of anchor text to SEO is enormous as it cannot be overlooked. Anchor text plays a vital role in making SEO contents rank better on search engines.

• Increases Website Traffic

One of the major functions that an anchor text provides a site is increased traffic. By using the right text link, you can get a higher population to view your content writing. Also, if you provide a properly optimized SEO content your page would rank on Google which increases traffic.

Most internet users only view the first four results that they see after searching for a keyword. By using the right anchor text links, you can get your site among the first ranked contents which a high number of viewers check first.

• Builds Brand Awareness 

With the world being a global market that keeps getting more technologically advanced, the internet is a wonderful place to build brand awareness. By using anchor text links, you can link your website content to your business homepage.

A properly optimized SEO content would rank well and increase the popularity of the brand on the internet. It is what people see that they know, when your site ranks high, people would see your brand and become more aware of it.

• Increased Search Engine Trust-flow

If you master the dynamics that involves the proper distribution of your anchor text within your content you can get Google’s trust. Putting your anchor text links in the right position where they can look as natural as possible would also help.

Search engines have been upgraded to pay attention to contents that are not over-optimized or manipulated by writers. With the right use of anchor text, you can get the search engine to trust your website. The links you use and back-linking matters a lot in this aspect also.

• SEO Friendly 

A good anchor text is concerned with making your content friendly to search engines. By using the right anchor text link you can get your content perfectly optimized and easily readable by Google. By achieving both goals, you can create SEO friendly content with the perfect anchor text links.

What makes a great SEO content is that it is not only readable by Google but also a great read for internet users. By understanding the proper usage of the anchor text, you would be able to produce results that would make your website rank. Your website ranking would not just be based on the links and keywords you feed the search engines but also how much sense they make to the layman.

• Helps In Getting Back-links

One of the major ways to rank on Google is when your website uses and gets credible back-links from other websites. By using an even distribution of anchor text links, your content can get references from other websites.

Mostly, these sites share links of other websites that they know are an answer to the problem or matter that needs to be solved. When your site gets back-linked by other websites on the internet, search engines use it as a criterion to rank your site.

Anchor Text Tips 

• Resist The Urge

One of the first things you must resist is the urge to pack your content with keywords. You have to make sure that you do not overuse keywords just because you want to increase your site rankings.

• Even Distribution 

Furthermore, learn the even distribution of anchor text all over your content. You don’t want to pack your content with a ugly looking URL link or precisely matched anchor text. By making this mistake you make Google suspicious of your site and you compromise on quality content. You should not do that.

• Diversify Your Texts

Also, you need to learn how to diversify the anchor text that you use. Be careful to use a variation of an anchor text in order for your content to look as natural as possible. This would help your rankings and satisfy internet users who are mainly concerned about the content itself.

• Use Properly In Sentences 

Pay careful attention to your anchor text usage in sentences. In areas where you have to use precise text links, note that the link should not affect or alter the meaning of the sentence. Often, writers tend to trade meaning and good writing quality for keyword rich anchors which is bad.

• Must Be Relevant To The Linked-To Page

Some writers just add the link of pages that are not relevant to the topic that is being discussed. Apart from generic anchor texts, all other anchors must be very relevant to the topic being discussed. Also, your anchors for backlinks have to be equally useful to the content as a whole. You must be careful not to be associated with toxic sites based on any link.

• Create Engaging Content 

Writers that use the anchor text need to make their contents engaging. Readers do not care whether you used a certain number of keyword or not. What your audience is concerned about is how relatable and engaging they find your content. If you trade this quality because of the anchor text, you might as well have just written a content that only Google can make sense of. This is even if the search engine itself would penalize you.

Conclusion

The best anchor text link is one that helps you to harness all the possibilities present in using these kind of texts. They would make your site rank well, allow people to get to know about it and even give you a good position with other websites. Invest in quality keywords today to help your website stand closer to the search engine for more views.