Importance of Anchor Text In Medical SEO

There are several SEO factors and the importance of each of these factors change with each new algorithm update. To stay on top of these updates optimizing for important SEO factors like keywords, link building, page speed, quality content, meta description, etc, are essential for medical SEO.

Just like any other SEO factor, anchor text is also a critical SEO factor that helps you understand the context of the link. Anchor text is a hyperlinked clickable text used in HTML i.e., it anchors two different locations on the Internet together. Providing meaningful anchor text helps search engine crawlers and users to understand what the target page is all about. Anchor words enable Google to learn which sites are running spam operations and which sites are legit. It informs the reader about what is the linked page about, so they know what to expect. Anchor text usually links webpages but they can also initiate downloads and link to documents like PDFs or Google files. Therefore, make sure to click only anchors from websites that you trust.

Two main reasons for choosing the right text for your anchors

• It tells Google algorithms the contents of your content and it uses your anchor choices to ensure that you are not engaging in spammy methods and have a better understanding of all the topics that you are linking to in your copy.
• It shows your readers about what is on the other side of the link, so anchors must be highly relevant.

Different Types of Anchor Text

• Branded: It uses brand name as anchor text.
• Naked URL: It uses a URL link as an anchor.
• Exact match: This includes a keyword that mirrors the page that is being linked to.
• Generic: A generic word or phrase is used in the anchor text. It doesn’t help users to find out what is the
• linked website about.
• Images: Search engines use the image alt attribute text as anchor whenever the image is linked to a
• website. The alt text should follow the same trend as anchor texts.
• Partial match: In this case, a part of the keyword or its variant is used as the anchor text.

Best Practices For Anchor text optimization

• Brief and clear anchor text: There is no specific length or limit to the anchor text but it is best to keep the link text brief and clear. Make sure to choose the terms for your anchor text carefully. Keep two key factors in mind: first, the most concise and accurate way to describe the linked page, and second the word or phrase that encourage users to click on a link.
• Page relevance: Search engine have matured over the years and they identify metrics for determining ranks. The most popular metric is link relevancy or how the topic on page A is related to that on page B. Good, relevant links increase the chances of both pages ranking for queries related to the topic. Link relevancy happens when people link out to other content on the web and is determined by the topic of the source page and content of anchor text on the source page. Links that focus on content related to the topic of the source page will have higher chances of sending stronger relevance signals than links that point to some other random topic. Search engines focus on different anchor text variations to link back to the original article and use it as additional indicators of what the article is about. To ensure your links send strong relevancy signals, keep your anchor text as descriptive about the target page as possible.
• Density of anchor text keywords: Google started focusing on keywords with its Penguin algorithm update. If many sites’ inbound links contain the same anchor text, then it may create suspicion that the links were not acquired naturally. So, it is better to get and use keyword- and topic-specific anchor text when possible. However, SEOs may get better results by striving for a variety of more natural anchor text phrases rather than the same keyword each time.

When choosing anchor text, keep the following tips in mind:

• Do not use generic words like ‘click here’ or ‘read this’ etc. These words don’t give enough clue to search engines on what the linked page is about.
• Do not use text that has no relation with the content of the linked page.

Poor Anchor text practices

• Never link poor-quality sites that don’t benefit your readers just to get a backlink from the sites. Google considers such sites as spam.
• Avoid adding tons of anchor text or keywords into your articles as it can disrupt the user experience and also alert Google it is spam.
• Do not use too many exact match anchors as Google’s algorithms may this as spam. Branded anchors and naked link anchors are typically safer.
• Avoid focusing on one type of anchor text. Diversifying is better.
• Never buy backlinks because your website will get penalized by Google.
• Do not make the anchor text very generic as this will detract from its value.

Anchor texts play a crucial role in in Medical SEO strategy and optimizing anchor texts is essential to get to the top of the SERP. Medical SEO services can help you use the best tools and practices to track Google’s latest algorithm updates and make necessary changes to the anchor text to gain traffic and ranking.