Author: Eric Brantner
SEO Website Copywriter
By now, many people know that there are benefits to interlinking to your own pages. It keeps visitors on your website and increases your chances for earning their business. However, it is not enough to simply link between your pages. How you interlink is crucial. More specifically, your links need to be keyword rich.
The importance of using keyword rich anchor text in SEO articles is often overlooked. However, it is an essential tool in boosting your ranking on search engines. Whenever you are linking to another site, you need to use anchor text that reflects the keywords for the site you are linking to. Too often people simply link using a word like “here.” Instead they should be using keyword rich anchor text. For example, this is how I would link to a page that discusses search engine marketing. The page I linked to is optimized for the phrase “search engine marketing” so it makes sense to include that term in the link. Search engines take notice of keyword rich anchor text, and you can increase your ranking by employing it judiciously.
Users also appreciate links with keywords. Keyword rich anchor text increases your website’s usability because the keywords give a clear explanation to the user of what is on the site that is linked. For example, if your page says “Click here to learn more about our services” you should change it to something for SEO friendly like “Learn more about our website design services.” The link makes it clear to both the user and the search engine what the website is optimized for.
Keyword rich anchor text should be a part of your SEO plan. SEO techniques that do not include quality interlinking are not maximizing the website’s search engine potential.