The link anchor is the visible text that serves as the support for a hypertext link.
link anchor
The user clicks on a link anchor to access the content to which this link points. It can be a word or a text, but in general, the anchor of the link is different from the URL to which it serves as a support.
If you are a specialist in web marketing or SEO, you must know its importance and use it well in your link building strategy.
In this article, we will see the usefulness of a link anchor and how to optimize it.
What is a link anchor?
The link anchor is the text on which a user can click to follow a link.
We also use the English term anchor to designate the text of a link, but this name is less popular. It participates in the structuring of web pages and facilitates navigation for Internet users.
It is a word that constantly comes up in the field of netlinking and webmarketing.
When well chosen, the link anchor improves the browsing experience on your site. It serves as a springboard for your natural referencing.
💡 Note that the anchor link can refer to:
- a web page from another site,
- a page from the same site,
- or even on a section of the same page.
How to make a link anchor?
The link anchor is the text contained in the <a> tag of a hyperlink. The link is built with the following HTML code: <a href=”/url-de-la-page”>anchor text</a>
When the anchor is used to navigate within the same page, the name attribute of the <a> tag is used. We then add the character # with the name of the anchor inside the <a> tag.
Concrete example with the content "Position tracking: why and how to do it?" »
In the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions), we invite you to click on “above in this article”. By clicking, you arrive on the paragraph dedicated to SEMRush. But how did we do it?
SEMRush paragraph side
We inserted id=”semrush” in the <h2> tag which gives concretely: <h2 id=”semrush”>SEMRush, best tool to follow your positioning on Google?</h2>
Listed FAQ
On "above in this article" we called the id semrush; or #semrush.
If the anchor name is located inside another page, then you will need to add the page URL. This gives something like:
<a href="page link#anchor name">anchor text</a>
This type of anchor is useful for referring the visitor to a specific part of the page, to create a summary for example.
Why use a link anchor?
The anchor is of paramount importance in the field of natural referencing and digital marketing.
It mainly contributes to:
Improve UX
Internal linking and netlinking are used to provide more information to visitors to a site.
But placing full links in buttons and in all content would be detrimental to the aesthetics of the site. We therefore use anchors to hide the URL in order to improve the appearance of the site.
This greatly improves the ergonomics of the site and facilitates navigation from page to page for the Internet user.
On the other hand, the anchor text replaces the often unclear URL and gives relevant information about the content of the landing page. Thus, the reader has an idea of what he will find by clicking on the link. There is no risk of clicking by mistake.
Make it easier for search engines to understand (Natural SEO)
The link anchor provides information to search engine crawl robots.
It gives them an indication to understand the subject addressed on the page where the link is and that addressed on the destination page of the link. Indeed, robots take into account the semantic context around the link.
They assess its weight on two major criteria:
- The relevance of the site where the link is placed and that of the landing page in relation to the content of the starting page.
- The anchor text used to determine which terms refer to content on the landing page.
If the anchor is relevant and consistent with the content of the landing page, it will add weight to the linking strategy of both sites involved.
The anchor text is therefore used to justify the relevance of internal linking (internal linking) and netlinking (external linking). It plays a decisive role in the natural referencing strategy.
How to optimize your link anchors?
Your link anchors should be succinct, relevant and SEO-friendly.
They must facilitate navigation for the Internet user while bringing a plus to your SEO. Here are two tips to optimize them.
1 Choose a succinct and relevant anchor
There is no limit to the number of characters to use for anchor text.
However, it is preferable to keep it as short as possible to maintain the ergonomics of the site. Ask yourself the question: what is the shortest and most precise way to describe the content of the page to which this link leads?
2 Add keywords
It's always good to include a keyword or two in the anchor text.
But be careful not to over-optimize. Prefer natural link anchors to anchor texts artificially filled with keywords.
💡With its updates, Google continually fights against the misuse of link anchor keywords.
