Link Building Strategy: How To Get Your Anchor Text Ratios Right

If you’re reading this, it is likely you already know what a backlink is and the general basics of link buildingLink building is a process of acquiring links pointing to your website. These links are obtained by creating content, participating in social media or commenting on other blogs.. Yet, for a link building strategy to be truly effective, there are various different elements that have to be considered.

One of those is the anchor textAnchor text is the text highlighted by a hyperlink. The words highlighted are crucial for SEO, informing Google’s crawling bots about the content of the site linked to. ratio.

It is something that can be easily overlooked, but you have to get the anchor text ratio right to maximise the success of your link building campaign. This guide will detail what it is, along with best practices to get the most out of this aspect.

What Is Anchor Text?

Before anything, here is a quick anchor text definition for clarity.

The anchor text is what is used to include the hyperlink for backlinks. For example, “anchor text” in the previous sentence was, in fact, the anchor text. This is applicable to both internal and external linksHyperlinks, also known as links, are the connection points on a webpage that take you to other webpages..

Read more: What is SEO Internal Linking?

If you need any further information, make sure to refer to our blog post: What is Anchor Text?

Anchor Text, Backlinks, And SEO: How Does It All Work?

Make no mistake: anchor text is a ranking factor for SEO. The reason is that, when used correctly, the anchor text supplies context for your backlinks. This is important so that search engines know exactly what your linked pages are about, giving them a greater idea about where your content should be ranked in their search results.

Read more: What is Anchor Text in SEO?

With this in mind, you might think it’s easy to target keywords for your anchor text. After all, you can just pick out a few of your most preferred keywords, load these up with your backlinks, and shoot up the rankings, right?

Wrong.

This results in something that won’t end up on an anchor best practices list. That’s because it causes over-optimisation. As you can gather by the name, this delivers the opposite effect you want when targeting specific search terms. Simply put, Google doesn’t like unnatural link building tactics, and it won’t like you using the same keywords continuously.

What Is The Right Anchor Text Ratio?

You want to avoid being punished by Google with your anchor texts. Yet how do you know what is an acceptable ratio for the keywords you’re targeting?

Good question.

When it comes to backlink anchor text, there is no defined ratio you can just look at for an answer. Say we are using the following anchor text for our exper quote Link Building page (shameless plug). Now there’s nowhere we can turn to that will go, ‘You can use that exact anchor text 25 times for your link’. There isn’t a set number to follow.

That makes things trickier when trying to put together the ideal backlink strategy.

However, research can help you to get a general picture of ratios and how to construct a natural backlink profile. One way is to take a peek at the backlink profiles built up by the top operators in your industry. If what they’re doing is seeing them hit the first spot in search queries, that suggests Google views it as a natural link profile.

Backlink Best Practices: The Importance Of Mixing Up Your Anchor Text

If you were to perform a professional Backlink Analysis, one of the points it would bring up is the mixture of anchor text used. Yes, some anchor texts are used more than once – and that is recommended. Yet you cannot go with the same anchor text each and every time. It’s vital to mix it up intelligently.

Fortunately, there are numerous anchor text categories. As part of our anchor text guide, here are the main ones we focus on as part of our link building efforts:

• Exact match anchor text: When exact match anchor text is used, this is when a specific key phrase is used.

Example: Resource Link Building

• Branded anchor text: The name of your brand.

Example: Click Intelligence

• Generic anchor text: A generic phrase that doesn’t have any direct relevance to the linked content.

Example: Click Here

• Naked anchor text: The hyperlink URL posted without any alteration.

Example: https://www.clickintelligence.co.uk/link-building/resource-link-building/

• Link including keywordKeywords are the words and phrases that potential customers might search for to find your business. anchor text: This is where the exact match anchor text sees the key phrase being combined with additional natural wording.

Example: Get help with resource link building here

With the right mixture, you will gain approval from Google and not have your backlink profile penalised.

Using Tools For Your Anchor Text Efforts

What’s a backlink strategy without the use of specialist tools? As shown in our blog about 6 Powerful Link Building Tools, these can supply a large helping hand with everything from identifying new backlink opportunities to getting rid of poor-quality links.

They can also be useful as an anchor text analysis.

As mentioned, nobody knows the exact number in terms of what anchor text types to use. However, there is one tool that gives you a pretty good estimation: SEOJet. If you view SEOJet reviews, you’ll see them mention the ability to track anchor text usage as part of your backlink profile. The result: you don’t undersell or oversell in any category.

What Are Some Benefits Of Good Anchor Text?

With all of the above work in mind, you might be wondering what you get in return. As mentioned already, you won’t get punished by Google. By targeting the right search terms, you can also propel your website content to the top of the search rankings.

Of course, good anchor text isn’t much use if it isn’t matched with valuable backlinks. This is where assistance from a professional Blogger Outreach agency can make all the difference.

Conclusion

With this anchor text guide, you will have gained a better idea about how this aspect of link building works. It may only be a small part of the overall picture, but it’s one you cannot overlook or ignore. Without it, your link building efforts will be lacking compared to your competitors.

The same is applicable if you’re not securing high-quality backlinks from authoritative sources. Our natural backlink service can help in that regard. Make sure to check our Link Building services to see how we can push your backlink profile to the next level.