Anchor Text Tips to Stay on the Safe Side

Google’s unnatural link penalties are appearing left, right and centre these days. One of the reasons many people are blaming is the inappropriate use of anchor text. Many sites have too many exact match anchor text links for certain keywords, and are now running the risk of being penalised by Google’s web spam team.

Here are a few key steps to ensure you are doing link building the right way in 2013 and beyond:

Analyse Your Current Link Profile

To stay on the safe side, it’s important to know the state of your current link profile. You can check this using tools such as the Open Site Explorer or Majestic SEO. Check your link profile to see if any phrases have been used disproportionately, and be sure to stop using those exact phrases in the future.

Anchor Text Variations

For whatever keyword you are targeting, try to come up with as many variations for the phrase as you can. Some variations should include the exact phrase within a sentence, while some should use synonyms or different words altogether. So, if you are targeting the keyword “designer jackets”, some variations could include:

Designer jackets
Jackets
Wide range of designer jackets
Fashionable clothing
Designer clothes
Where to find designer jackets
Designer jackets for adults
Trendy coats and jackets

It’s also useful to use anchor text variations that include your brand name, or your URL, as this resembles a more natural looking link profile.

Vary Your Author Bios

If you are doing a lot of guest posting, there can be a tendency to copy and paste an author by-line, which could result in the same anchor text being used over and over again. This leads on nicely to my next point…

Get Links in the Article Body

With Google becoming cleverer at deciphering high quality links from low quality links, it would not be surprising if in-content links are given more value. With author bio links becoming more common as more agencies focus on guest posting, in-content links may appear more authentic.

Be sure to keep track of the anchor text used in your link-building campaign, as it is now more important than ever to know that your link profile looks natural.