Anchor Text: Are You Using It Correctly?

To start with, an anchor text is a hyperlinked text on a site. This is what is referred to by most as a link.

To give you an example, click on keyword density and it will redirect you to a post about keyword density. "keyword density" is your anchor text.


The purpose of an anchor text is to give your visitors an idea about the site the link points to before they actually click on it. But its purpose is not solely limited to human visitors alone but for search engines as well.

This is where the correct use of an anchor text becomes valuable for your website in terms of optimization. To further explain this, let us use the most common mistake website owners do when creating a link.

"Click here" is a phrase that is commonly used on personal blogs and even on some corporate websites when it comes to linking 2 pages. For human visitors, it is understood as a call to action to click on the link. No harm there. But if you are after optimizing your site, using the phrase "click here" would tell the search engines that the link you are pointing to is about the topic "click here". Doing so would only make the search engine consider the link as irrelevant. But if you want to rank for the keyword "click here" then by all means continue using it.

Your anchor text must be relevant to the page that you are pointing to

If you want to point to a page that explains how you can start your own home business, then create an anchor text that would read, 10 work at home business ideas, and not "click here" to learn how to work from home.

Using the right anchor text will not only make your web content much easier to navigate for human visitors, but also for the search engines.