Anchor text is the clickable text that visitors see in a hyperlink; text that’s usually uniquely coloured, underlined, or both. Best practice is to make this anchor text descriptive of what visitors are going to get when they click the link.
The other day I came across this example of weak anchor text:
In this case, the anchor text is just the word “here.” Now, we would understand from the context that the link is to a short video. But if we were quickly scanning the page, only the word “here” would jump out (though the bolded text in this case does help a bit) and it would have no meaning. More importantly, when a search engine scans the page, it primarily connects the link with the anchor text, so just the word “here.” Again, not very helpful.
What about the phrase “watch a short video?”
Well, that would make better anchor text, but what is the video about? If we read the full paragraph we’d have a sense of what the video’s going to be about, but for clarity’s sake (and the sake of the search engines), put that short description right into the anchor text.
A better phrase would be: “watch a short video on our philosopy of sustainable home design.”
Part of the concern of search engines is that you’re not misleading your visitors with your links. Good descriptive text that truly matches the content of where the link leads, goes a long way to helping search engines confirm the usefulness of your links, as well as your concern with clarity and transparency.
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