Add Useful Anchor Text Links

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The fundamental idea of the Internet is that multiple webpages connect to one another. They are connected by hyperlinks, also called links.

The CopySmiths rules are:

If you are citing a study, legal paper, research or scientific source ALWAYS link to the original source
When adding a link, choose the most relevant words
Add a minimum of 5 internal links
The first link that appears in your article should be internal
Add external links to specialists and experts on the same topic if necessary
If your anchor is the name of a product or an article title, then it should be capitalized to match the target title
Unless it’s part of the brand name, don’t include the domain in an anchor (.com, .org)

Wrong

You can find a job on Indeed.com on Saturdays.
You can find a job on www.indeed.com on Saturdays

Correct

You can find a job on Indeed on Saturdays.

Anchor Text is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink.

Here’s an example: What is a German Shepherd?

In this example, the phrase “German Shepherd” is the Anchor Text. These are the words that I have anchored to the link.

It’s important to note that I have only linked the most relevant words.

SEO-friendly anchor text is very short and highly relevant to the target page (i.e., the page it’s linking to). The link text is very specific, not generic.

The link you choose must be highly relevant to the article and to the idea within the paragraph you are writing. Don’t link for the sake of adding a link.

Use the link to give the reader a follow-up on the idea with further information.

They might be interested in delving deeper into a topic and are searching for another expert who can help them understand more. Or, they might be interested in reading another article in the same blog on the topic or a closely related topic.

If a person is quoted or a statistic noted then make sure there is correct attribution and citation. This means linking back to the original source of the information.

You would rarely link to the homepage of a website. Instead, you would usually link to another relevant page on the topic or to a product or service page.

All articles must include a minimum of five (5) internal links. This means that if an article is written for a client then it includes 5+ links to other blog articles and pages within the client’s website.

Learn more: https://moz.com/learn/seo/anchor-text

Bad Example

The text is “Airsoft team patches”. The reader will expect to be taken to a page team patches, perhaps that they can buy.

The writer has chosen, instead, to send the read to a blog article related to setting up a team. The text is not relevant to the link.

Good Example

The text is “gaining and maintaining muscle” and the writer has linked to an article about gaining muscle. The text is highly relevant to the link.

Limit the Number of Words in Your Link

Avoid linking more words than needed.

Correct: …such as this link to the Moz article on anchor text.
Okay: …such as this link to the Moz article on anchor text.
Wrong: …such as this link to the Moz article on anchor text.

Sometimes you’ll notice that people will link text such as Click Here or Read More. That is acceptable if there isn’t a better way of using Anchor Text. But, usually you would choose a better anchor text than Read More.

Correct: …read more to learn about anchor text.
Correct: …and so we come to the concluding sentence. Read more.
Wrong: …read more to learn about anchor text.
Wrong: …such as this link to the Moz article on anchor text.

External (Outbound) Links

An outbound, or external, link is when you link to another website. An entirely different website!

Follow these rules for outbound links:

We never add outbound links in the first section of the article. We don’t want to reader to leave too soon.
We only link to authoritative sources. This means other websites who are specialists and experts on the topic at hand.

What is an Authoritative Source?

An authoritative link source is someone, or a website, who has developed deep expertise in a topic. It’s someone who really knows their stuff.

This person, or website, will narrowly write on this topic. And, they have unique, new and interesting ideas that add to the conversation.

Here are some really popular sites that aren’t authoritative:

Healthline

Don’t Link To Non-Expert Generalists

As a rule of thumb, if it’s on the first page of Google it is likely not an authoritative source. (Unless, you are experienced with Boolean search operators.)

Banned Links

Do not link to: Inc.com, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Huffington Post, Business Insider, Fast Company, Buzzfeed, Blogspot, Fox News, Healthline.

This is not a complete list. Use your judgement

You need to be able to determine whether you are reading the work of a human expert with their years of personal experience. Or whether it’s a giant publishing company that writes about any and every topic.

For example, giant publishing companies will write about everything from toothache to how change a tyre. They will have multiple categories of content, instead of a silo of expertise in one area. They are not authoritative sources.

Large publishing companies are able to automatically generate millions of articles using a CMS called Bertie. They are not authority sources. An authority is a person who has formed their own opinion through years of research, experimentation and careful thought. This is the opposite of robot-generated text.

Reference: https://digiday.com/media/forbes-built-a-robot-to-pre-write-articles-for-its-contributors/

And, any publishers accept payment for article inclusion. This means that you can usually find a writer on a jobs platform (ie. Upwork) who can be paid to write an article.

It is common knowledge that it costs around $300 to get an article published on Forbes. It’s common knowledge that you can a Wikipedia editor a few hundred dollars to get a link or article included in Wikipedia.

Reference: https://theoutline.com/post/2563/how-brands-secretly-buy-their-way-into-forbes-fast-company-and-huffpost-stories?zd=1&zi=pibli6ey

Don’t Link To Blogspot and Other Low Quality Websites

It’s easy to get caught up in a bad link neighbourhood when you embed an image into an article. You probably think that you’re linking to just an image on Pinterest. But … who is the website behind that Pin? Who are you ACTUALLY linking to?

Watch this screencast to learn about bad, no-authority links behind images and Pinterest images.

Never Ever Link to Competitors

As you conduct your research, no doubt you’ll come across some excellent articles on the same topic as you’re writing! Bonanza! Hooray.

You think to yourself “This writer really knows what they’re talking about. They’ve got an uncanny knack of identifying the problems our readers face, and identifying a terrific solution! I know, I’ll link to their article!“

Bad move.

Are you linking to a competitor?

We’ve seen this scenario many times. Before you start writing, make sure you’ve identified the client’s competitors.

If you haven’t been given a handy list then switch on your brain and use your evaluation skills.

Does the blog have a product section? If yes, read it. Is the product very similar to the client? Do they define their product using the same or similar words?
Are their blog articles sending a reader over to a website that can purchase? Is it clear that if you click on a product image in the website that they can either buy on the site or will buy when they move off the site?
Does the blog write on the same topics? If yes, it’s at least a keyword competitor if not a product competitor. You’ll see that they have 100s of article ideas that you think could be a good match for the client. Probably a competitor!
Does the blog have the same audience? If yes, then it’s likely a keyword competitor. Sometimes not.

If in doubt, don’t link to them.

Curate Your Outbound Links Carefully

We recently completed some excellent work for a client. However, there were three obvious authority link mistakes in the first section of the page. Watch the screencast to learn.

What Is an Internal Link?

An internal link connects one page of a website to a different page on the same website.

Internal links guide visitors through your site to help them reach a desired destination or action. They also guide the search engine crawlers through your website. Internal links help search engines better understand which pages are most important and which keywords are associated with them

In an internal link, the source domain (www.example.com/dogs) and target domain (www.example.com/cats) are the same.

Which Destination Should You Choose?

The same rule applies as per Outbound links. Choose highly relevant target pages.

Let’s say you need to write a washroom article for Alsco NZ Greenroom. You would look at other articles in Alsco NZ that are related to Washrooms and perhaps include a couple of links to those articles.

The article you choose to link to would add to the reader’s knowledge in a new, interesting way.

Or maybe, you’re writing about hand hygiene. You could link to another article about germs in Greenroom or a handwashing poster in the Resources section. Or, to a product page that details the client’s offering.

How to Quickly and Easily Find a Relevant Link?

To find a relevant internal link simply search Google like this:

site:www.smallrevolution.com [virtual assistant salary]

or, like this:

site:www.smallrevolution.com “virtual assistant salary”

Google will find the most relevant pages which you can easily use as links. Using [ ] will give you exact match to that keyword, so that is most relevant. Whereas using ” “ around your keyword will give you nearly relevant matches.

This is what it will look like in your search bar: