Anchor Tag Link SEO

While conducting Search Engine Optimization strategies such as SEO Link Building, it is easy for some webmasters to lose sight of how they use anchor text and the HTML anchor tag on their own website or blog.  This article digs deeper into this critical area for SEO.

Search engines use text found on websites to discover information regarding a web page topic and pay a lot of attention to text found within an anchor tag, the HTML code for a hyperlink.

Internal links, those pointing to URLs on your own website, and external linking, where you link to other websites, are treated very differently by search engines.  This article discusses both types of linking strategies  to help you get your SEO and Links working together to help improve your search rankings.   

SEO and Links
The use of text linking instead of images and buttons is the best choice for SEO and links as search engines seem to favor these and give them more weight as a ranking factor.  For this reason you should try to use text linking wherever possible, especially when linking to internal pages on your website.

Avoid the use of generic terms and phrases such as 'Home', 'Click Here', 'More' etc.  Unless you wish to rank for these terms they serve little purpose with regards to SEO.  You should strive to use related keywords within your anchor text, both for internal and external linking, both of which are described in more detail below.



HTML Code for a Hyperlink
The HTML code for a hyperlink uses an Anchor Tag to make elements of your page clickable and open another URL when clicked by a user.  A basic example showing the elements related to SEO is shown below.  


Anchor Tag Format
<a href="http://blog.ezwebsitepromotion.com/20...URL" target="TARGET">LINK TEXT</a>

URL - The full URL to the resource or page to open.

TARGET - Location to open the URL; 

_blank - opens a new un-named browser window_parent - opens in parent frame or window_self - replaces current frame or browser window_top - loads in top frame  framename - a named frame or browser window
Omitting this value will cause the link to open in the current window or frame.

LINK TEXT - This is the clickable text on your page, or an image tag that you want to make into a clickable link.


Example Text Link in HTML
<a href="http://www.ezwebsitepromotion.com" target="_blank">Website Promotion</a>

The above example opens the website www.ezwebsitepromotion.com in a new browser window when the text Website Promotion is clicked.



Internal Anchor Text Linking
Anchor text for internal linking should always contain keywords related to the target page.  Linking text containing two to three words seems to work best.  Follow the same strategy for your website menu and site navigation links.

Some good examples anchor text for links incoming to this page could be SEO Anchor Text, Anchor Tags for SEO, etc.  Only use related and relevant keywords that appear on the target page.  Try to avoid linking to the same page more than two or three times from the same web page as this can look spammy to search engines.



External Anchor Text Linking
SEO link building to external websites is still a relevant factor for your own website as search engines also look at the sites that you link to when ranking your website.  Again use relevant anchor text only.  We have seen some success in linking outward using our targeted keywords, but only link to well established, trusted, authority sites.  Linking to bad or unrelated websites can cost you ranking positions and in severe cases get you banned (sand-boxed).

It is also a good idea when external linking to open the URL in a new browser window to ensure you do not lose your user if they click the link.  Use the Target value of the anchor tag to specify "_blank" as the target for the new page.


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