Anchor text refers to the text used in the links to your website. In the past, acquiring enough links with specific keywords in the anchor text could help your site rank for those keywords. However, some websites faced penalties for having statistically unnatural anchor text ratios. So, what are the best practices for using anchor text today?
Industry Standard Guidance for Anchor Text
There is no industry standard on the optimal use of anchor text. The amount considered appropriate is subjective. Some believe that by studying search engine results pages (SERPs), one can discover the best anchor text ratios for each niche.
Anchor Text Ratios
By analyzing the backlinks of millions of websites, certain anchor text patterns emerge, showing what percentage is normal for various niches. This is known as a Correlation Study, which seeks to find a cause-and-effect relationship between observable information.
However, examining anchor text ratios neglects the fact that some pages rank due to reasons unrelated to their links. Here are four scenarios where Google ranks pages without considering links:
- Some pages rank lower due to a poor user experience (issues related to ads, site speed, mobile friendliness, etc.).
- Other pages rank higher because users expect those specific websites to appear. Some sites are popular and meet user expectations.
- Some sites are top-ranked due to geographic location. A significant user majority might respond better to a site located in their region.
- Other pages rank in the middle because the user intent demands a result that provides a comparison of various product providers.
Modification Engine Prevents Reverse Engineering
When a site is ranked, it is evaluated by a Core Algorithm, or Ranking Engine. However, the Modification Engine may override these results and use other criteria to rank the SERPs.
This means traditional ranking factors like the number of links or anchor text no longer influence a page’s position in the SERPs. The Modification Engine takes over, using other factors to re-rank the results.
If the Modification Engine, not the Ranking Engine, influences SERPs, then anchor text isn’t the reason pages rank as they do. Thus, anchor text ratios are meaningless since other factors determine a page’s rank.
Over 200 Ranking Factors
There are over 200 factors affecting why a page is ranked, complicating efforts to correlate anchor text ratios to an ideal percentage that appears natural.
Moreover, the real challenge is in not knowing which links Google uses to rank a page, which links pass minimal ranking equity, and which provide no link equity at all.
You cannot extract meaningful statistics about anchor text ratios without knowing:
- Which pages pass full PageRank
- Which pass partial PageRank
- Which contribute no PageRank at all
Does Data Talk and Everything Else Walks?
Hard data cannot be trusted because it is often partial data. As explained earlier, a lot of information is missing to make such data useful.
The algorithms consider more than just anchor text. Many elements contribute to creating the SERPs, making correlating anchor text ratios nearly impossible.
What do Others Say About Anchor Text?
The amount of anchor text to use is largely a matter of opinion. Here are insights from a few experts:
Julie Joyce, Link Building Expert
Julie Joyce, a respected link building expert, shares her views on anchor text today:
“Anchor text is an important signal, but its ease of manipulation may have lessened its importance. While it still holds ranking power, having 75% exact match anchors looks unnatural. Overdoing it doesn’t lead to lasting results. Other factors are now more crucial for ranking.”
On search engines using surrounding text versus the landing page:
“I believe it’s a mix of both. Manipulating surrounding text is easy, but altering an entire landing page without affecting conversion rates is harder.”
Bill Slawski, Search Engine Patents Expert
Bill Slawski offers his insights on how Google might use anchor text:
“Anchor hits, as detailed in phrase-based indexing patents, suggest that related phrases in anchor text might be boosted as expert links.”
Bill discusses a recent related patent from 2014 that highlights how related words and phrases can help a search engine understand and rerank pages.
“Google might analyze a window of words around a link as associated text.”
Matt Diggity, SEO Specialist
Matt Diggity shares a fresh perspective on SEO:
“Based on experience, anchor text remains a significant signal. Exact match anchor text from a powerful link source is valuable but should be used sparingly. Excessive off-topic anchors can harm ranking by altering a page’s topic.”
On the ranking power of anchor text:
“It’s hard to determine. Anchors are attached to links. The reduced impact might stem from anchors or links themselves having less importance.”
On surrounding text versus the landing page:
“This seems to be the industry consensus, but I haven’t personally tested it.”
What is the Best Use of Anchor Text?
There is no consensus on the best way to use anchor text. Bill Slawski emphasizes using surrounding text to supplement anchor text, with Julie Joyce agreeing on a mix of anchor and surrounding text. Matt Diggity takes a cautious approach and defers judgment on surrounding text without testing.
While there might not be a “best” method, the safest approach might be using branded anchor text and allowing surrounding text and landing pages to define the link’s meaning. However, this approach risks missing out on the full ranking potential of anchor text. Ideally, the choice of anchor text should be left to the web publishers linking to your site.
