Anchor Text

Anchor text is the text used to hyperlink to another page – internal or external. It can provide contextual information to search engines and users about the link’s destination – so it is generally a good idea to ensure that the link text is relevant to the content it is linking to.

Anchor text has always been an influential ranking factor with Google. In the early days it was susceptible to being targeted by black hat SEO. In 2012, Google’s penguin algorithm targeted anchor text over usage with websites dropping from the first page overnight. These days, using anchor text should be used in way to enhance user experience and give search engines a helping hand – with caution.