When you understand and follow Google’s evolving rules, you can benefit from organic search results and consistent traffic to your website. However, should Google’s algorithm detect something unacceptable within the anchor text of your links, then your website may be penalized or blacklisted. To help your site stay on Google’s good side, continue reading to learn what to do and not to do regarding the anchor text in your links.

Do Build Links Thoughtfully

You may already know that stuffing keywords into your page content no longer offers any benefits. When it comes to link building, the same concept applies to anchor text. Keyword-rich anchor text can set off Google algorithm alarms, so choose only those keywords that are relevant to the page that they link to, and do not stuff keywords into the anchor text of your links.

Don’t Use Repetitive Anchor Text

Factoring in your anchor text is one way that Google determines which terms your website should be ranked for. Because of this, you may be tempted to use the same anchor text for each of your links, assuming that doing so will increase your search engine rankings and direct more traffic toward your website. Unfortunately, this link-building strategy is an SEO mistake that can do more harm than good. Repetitive anchor text is considered unnatural by the Google algorithm. For this reason, if you choose the same anchor text for all or most of your links, this may signal to Google that you’re trying to cheat the system, and may eventually lead to penalization.

Do Create a Diverse Anchor Text Profile

Now that you know not to repeat the anchor text among links to your website, you may be wondering how to build a link profile that the Google algorithm will consider natural and associated with a safe site that offers content valuable to search engine users. One way of doing this is to combine your brand name with keywords and other text to create unique examples of anchor text. Also, you can build a diverse anchor text profile by using variations of your keywords. To find these, type a keyword into the Google search bar, which will prompt a list of Google suggest options. You can also scroll to the bottom of the Google search results page to find suggestions for related searches. Selecting those keywords and phrases that are related to your services and using a mixture of these for anchor text can help you build a Google-friendly anchor text profile.

Are you interested in improving your website’s Google search engine rankings? If so, consider working with the SEO experts at Pennington Creative. Using natural anchor text and other proven strategies, our business blogging services can help direct targeted traffic to your business’ website.

About the Author

Hillary - Digital Marketing Specialist, Copywriting
Hillary Hubbard

Digital Marketing Specialist, Copywriting