{"id":2173,"date":"2013-05-03T08:50:52","date_gmt":"2013-05-03T12:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/?p=2173"},"modified":"2025-07-01T12:15:53","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T17:15:53","slug":"natural-anchor-text-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/natural-anchor-text-tips.html","title":{"rendered":"Tips for Using Natural Anchor Text"},"content":{"rendered":"

Houston writers spend a lot of time researching keywords and considering each variation carefully. You\u2019ve done the same for your website. Then you hear that you should use those keywords as anchor text.<\/p>\n

But what is anchor text exactly?<\/p>\n

Anchor text is merely the words that you use to link to another page. The words contain the URL (http:\/\/) that, when clicked on, take the reader to another webpage. Search engines use anchor test to determine whether or not the information you link to is relevant to your page.<\/p>\n

If anchor text helps search engines determine the relevancy of a website and rank it, shouldn\u2019t every keyword be anchor text?<\/p>\n

Just a minute. If you make every keyword, or even just your main ones, anchor text, your page will appear over optimized and spammy. Spam is not natural.<\/p>\n

Day to day speech is spontaneous. You don\u2019t repeat the same word or phrase over and over. Natural anchor text<\/a> takes the same form as ordinary talking with a friend or co-worker.<\/p>\n

So how do you incorporate natural anchor text in your website to entice search engines to reward you? There are a few things that you have to do first, and then you can go on to using anchor text more naturally.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. First, do a thorough spring cleaning on your website. Is content repeated? Do you have pages that don\u2019t have a lot of content? Are there some pages that are not performing? If you have pages with duplicate content, no content, or pages that are not performing, set them so that they do not get crawled by the search egines.<\/li>\n
  2. When researching keywords, don\u2019t go for an exact match. Exact matches alert the algorithms to spammy content. Instead, try related keywords or use a thesaurus.<\/li>\n
  3. Look at the anchor text you currently have. Can you use long tailed keywords where you are currently using generic keywords? An example would be Arabian Horses vs. Egyptian Arabian horses or Dahman Shawaniyah Arabian horses. Or use your brand name with your keyword \u2013 Desert Jewel Arabian Horses. Using your brand name helps your company gain relevancy and rank.<\/li>\n

    \"A<\/a><<\/p>\n

  4. Don\u2019t use anchor text on your home page.<\/li>\n
  5. Use \u201cstop\u201d words in keyword phrases. \u201cStop\u201d words, such as the, is, at, which, on, how to, etc. do not break up a key phrase. The idea is to split up your keywords.<\/li>\n
  6. Use the naked URL more often. Don\u2019t embed it in words.<\/li>\n
  7. Imbed your key words and phrases in images, and always optimize your image \u201cALT\u201d tag. (An example is the horse picture used in this blog. Use view\/source to find my alt tag).<\/li>\n
  8. Don\u2019t make your keywords, anchor text or not, more than 3% to 4% of your total word count.<\/li>\n
  9. Don\u2019t forget your reader. Write like you are speaking to them without trying to sell them something. If a reader sees a benefit to him and that you are trustworthy, you\u2019ll more than likely gain his interest, not to mention a sale.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Using natural anchor text is easy if you remember the reader, breathe, and write like you are talking to a person.<\/p>\n

    Houston\u2019s SEO firm Directory One<\/a> is an expert in natural anchor text. Call them at 713-465-0051 to get your anchor text optimized and on the right track.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Houston writers spend a lot of time researching keywords and considering each variation carefully. You\u2019ve done the same for your website. Then you hear that you should use those keywords as anchor text. But what is anchor text exactly? Anchor text is merely the words that you use to link to another page. The words contain the URL (http:\/\/) that, when clicked on, take the reader to another webpage. Search engines use anchor test to determine whether or not the information you link to is relevant to your page. If anchor text helps search engines determine the relevancy of a website and rank it, shouldn\u2019t every keyword be anchor text? Just a minute. If you make every keyword, or even just your main ones, anchor text, your page will appear over optimized and spammy. Spam is not natural. Day to day speech is spontaneous. You don\u2019t repeat the same word or phrase over and over. Natural anchor text takes the same form as ordinary talking with a friend or co-worker. So how do you incorporate natural anchor text in your website to entice search engines to reward you? There are a few things that you have to do first, and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4700,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,16],"tags":[1014,1016,1017,1019,1015,877,1018],"class_list":["post-2173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-search-engine-optimization","category-seo-copywriting","tag-anchor-text","tag-anchor-text-seo-tips","tag-backlink-anchor-text","tag-link-building-strategies","tag-natural-anchor-text","tag-seo-best-practices","tag-seo-friendly-anchor-text"],"yoast_head":"\nNatural Anchor Text Tips to Improve SEO Effectiveness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn how to use natural anchor text in your content and backlinks to improve SEO, boost rankings, and avoid search engine penalties from over-optimization.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/natural-anchor-text-tips.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Natural Anchor Text Tips to Improve SEO Effectiveness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Learn how to use natural anchor text in your content and backlinks to improve SEO, boost rankings, and avoid search engine penalties from over-optimization.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/natural-anchor-text-tips.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Search Engine Marketing & Optimization Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-05-03T12:50:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-01T17:15:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/anchor-text-glosario-workana-oks.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"850\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip O'Hara\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip O'Hara\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/natural-anchor-text-tips.html#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/natural-anchor-text-tips.html\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Philip O'Hara\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2c12d79fe6de0228be0c8b1a5f638e8\"},\"headline\":\"Tips for Using Natural Anchor Text\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-05-03T12:50:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-01T17:15:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/natural-anchor-text-tips.html\"},\"wordCount\":564,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/natural-anchor-text-tips.html#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/anchor-text-glosario-workana-oks.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Anchor Text\",\"anchor text SEO tips\",\"backlink anchor text\",\"link building strategies\",\"natural anchor text\",\"SEO best practices\",\"SEO-friendly anchor text\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Search Engine Optimization | SEO\",\"SEO Content Writing |SEO Copywriting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/natural-anchor-text-tips.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/natural-anchor-text-tips.html\",\"name\":\"Natural Anchor Text Tips to Improve SEO Effectiveness\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/natural-anchor-text-tips.html#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/natural-anchor-text-tips.html#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/anchor-text-glosario-workana-oks.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-05-03T12:50:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-01T17:15:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2c12d79fe6de0228be0c8b1a5f638e8\"},\"description\":\"Learn how to use natural anchor text in your content and backlinks to improve SEO, boost rankings, and avoid search engine penalties from over-optimization.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/natural-anchor-text-tips.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/natural-anchor-text-tips.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/natural-anchor-text-tips.html#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/anchor-text-glosario-workana-oks.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/anchor-text-glosario-workana-oks.jpg\",\"width\":850,\"height\":450},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/natural-anchor-text-tips.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Tips for Using Natural Anchor Text\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Search Engine Marketing & Optimization Blog\",\"description\":\"Directory One\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2c12d79fe6de0228be0c8b1a5f638e8\",\"name\":\"Philip O'Hara\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f50ee825a5ca27a3414764c22cebf5cf053ea9e8fed32b88969d19e919bfbb54?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f50ee825a5ca27a3414764c22cebf5cf053ea9e8fed32b88969d19e919bfbb54?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f50ee825a5ca27a3414764c22cebf5cf053ea9e8fed32b88969d19e919bfbb54?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Philip O'Hara\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/author\/philip\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Natural Anchor Text Tips to Improve SEO Effectiveness","description":"Learn how to use natural anchor text in your content and backlinks to improve SEO, boost rankings, and avoid search engine penalties from over-optimization.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/natural-anchor-text-tips.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Natural Anchor Text Tips to Improve SEO Effectiveness","og_description":"Learn how to use natural anchor text in your content and backlinks to improve SEO, boost rankings, and avoid search engine penalties from over-optimization.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/natural-anchor-text-tips.html","og_site_name":"Search Engine Marketing & Optimization Blog","article_published_time":"2013-05-03T12:50:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-07-01T17:15:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":850,"height":450,"url":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/anchor-text-glosario-workana-oks.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip O'Hara","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip O'Hara","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/natural-anchor-text-tips.html#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/natural-anchor-text-tips.html"},"author":{"name":"Philip O'Hara","@id":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2c12d79fe6de0228be0c8b1a5f638e8"},"headline":"Tips for Using Natural Anchor Text","datePublished":"2013-05-03T12:50:52+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-01T17:15:53+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/natural-anchor-text-tips.html"},"wordCount":564,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/natural-anchor-text-tips.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/anchor-text-glosario-workana-oks.jpg","keywords":["Anchor Text","anchor text SEO tips","backlink anchor text","link building strategies","natural anchor text","SEO best practices","SEO-friendly anchor text"],"articleSection":["Search Engine Optimization | SEO","SEO Content Writing |SEO Copywriting"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/natural-anchor-text-tips.html","url":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/natural-anchor-text-tips.html","name":"Natural Anchor Text Tips to Improve SEO Effectiveness","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/natural-anchor-text-tips.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/natural-anchor-text-tips.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/anchor-text-glosario-workana-oks.jpg","datePublished":"2013-05-03T12:50:52+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-01T17:15:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2c12d79fe6de0228be0c8b1a5f638e8"},"description":"Learn how to use natural anchor text in your content and backlinks to improve SEO, boost rankings, and avoid search engine penalties from over-optimization.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/natural-anchor-text-tips.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/natural-anchor-text-tips.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/natural-anchor-text-tips.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/anchor-text-glosario-workana-oks.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/anchor-text-glosario-workana-oks.jpg","width":850,"height":450},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/natural-anchor-text-tips.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tips for Using Natural Anchor Text"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/","name":"Search Engine Marketing & Optimization Blog","description":"Directory One","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2c12d79fe6de0228be0c8b1a5f638e8","name":"Philip O'Hara","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f50ee825a5ca27a3414764c22cebf5cf053ea9e8fed32b88969d19e919bfbb54?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f50ee825a5ca27a3414764c22cebf5cf053ea9e8fed32b88969d19e919bfbb54?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f50ee825a5ca27a3414764c22cebf5cf053ea9e8fed32b88969d19e919bfbb54?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Philip O'Hara"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/author\/philip"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2173"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4343,"href":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2173\/revisions\/4343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}