Anchor texts, or simply anchors, are widely used linking technique that contains great engagement potential and SEO capabilities. Incorporating anchors in your site can enhance traffic, and user engagement and even contribute to better conversion rates.
How to Use Anchor Texts in WordPress
When it comes to linking, there are no hard rules, however, there are several concepts that you might want to follow. In the following sections, you will read about them and hopefully, they will help you expand your online presence.
- Focus on the natural flow of your content
When writing the content for your web pages, you should focus on making it as natural as possible and use relevant anchor words and phrases that correspond with the context of the text. If you can’t find a way to squeeze your anchor text naturally, then it is highly likely that this particular link text doesn’t belong among these lines and you should come up with a different idea.
- The link text should match the content it links to
This means that the anchors should tell readers what kind of content the link leads to. This is why you should be very descriptive with your anchor texts and never let your visitors guess where the link leads to.
Consider this example:
“WordPress Plugins allow you to add custom functions to your website and ease your work with the platform. Learn how to install and activate them and get the most out of WordPress.
Also, if you are new to the topic, read our article which thoroughly explains what WordPress plugins are.”
Both anchors seamlessly blend with the context and feel like they are a natural part of this text. For optimal results, you should aim at a similar goal.
- Include keywords and key phrases in your anchors
Using keywords and keyphrases can greatly improve your site’s SEO score and contribute to more traffic to your pages. When adding anchors, try to find out which keywords and keyphrases fit the best in the context and use them as link words/phrases.
- Don’t overuse link texts
Stuffing way too many anchor texts in your pages might well result in lowering your SEO score and user engagement. This is due to the fact that too many links appear to look unnatural.
Such an approach is highly likely to make readers and crawlers lean toward the notion that you are desperate for visits and conversions. This will result in visitors leaving your site, and crawlers lower your search result positions.
Remember: it is very important to create a natural flow of your texts and anchors.
- Don’t lie to your visitors
Don’t use gimmicks of any kind to boost traffic and search result rankings. You will eventually achieve just the opposite.
This means that you shouldn’t use anchors such as “free hosting services” that lead toward a paid membership aviation blog.
In a more realistic example, if you have the same anchor, but the link points to paid hosting plans, your visitors will still consider this as a gimmick.
Also, such approaches are very likely to have a negative impact on SEO, so it is best if you simply avoid them.
Keep reading: What is a WordPress Permalink?
Conclusion
Anchors are a very powerful SEO tool, which can help you reach out to a larger online audience and also keep the attention of your site’s visitors for longer.
Focusing on the natural flow of text and anchoring, you can solidify your online presence in no time.
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