Link anchor text

A vital concept in link building is link anchor text. Link anchor text is the word or words that constitute the visible text of the link itself, the "blue underlined text" as it is often called. The anchor text of a link is a powerful ranking factor; anchor text serves as a signpost to Google as to the content and subject of the destination page.

Tip

How anchor text appears in HTML Code

The anchor text of a link is coded by placing the desired text between the opening and closing markup of the hyperlink as follows:

<a href="http://www.tastyplacement.com/">This Is Anchor Text</a>

Controlling the link anchor text of inbound links is vital whenever possible. The problem is that you can't always control the anchor text of inbound links. And unfortunately, the higher quality the link is, the more restricted you'll be in choosing anchor text. A perfect example is the Yahoo! Directory. A link in the Yahoo! Directory is a great link to get, but Yahoo! dictates that the anchor...