Good inbound link texts can give your website a boost in Google’s search results. Unfortunately, many people still don’t take advantage of the full potential of optimised link texts. They will list their links with the title of their site or use the time honoured phrase “click here“! This article explains how to make the most out of your links.

What is a link text?

The link text is the text in the clickable text that is used to link to another web page. It is the text between the anchor tags. That’s why some people call link texts anchor texts.

Why are link texts important?

Google and other major search engines heavily rely on link texts to specify the position of web pages in the search results. If many websites link to a web page with the link text “travel” then Google thinks that the web page must be relevant to the keyword “travel”. For that reason, the web page will get a ranking boost for that search term.

The more often a keyword appears in links to your website, the better your rankings for that keyword will be.

How to write good links

There are a few easy tips that will make your links more useful for both web surfers and search engines:

1. Write your texts as if there were no links. Search engines like links that are in the normal text of your web page. The content should make sense to the user e.g.

Getting links from another web page is a great way to improve your rankings on Google and other search engines.

2. Do not describe the action of the link, or a meaningless title, but the purpose of the link:

Bad: Click here for more information on cheap flights.

Good: Further information about cheap flights can be found on our site

3. Use clear and descriptive text for your links. The link text should be meaningful enough to make sense when read out of context.

Bad: The software can be downloaded for free on the product name website.

Good: The software can be downloaded for free on the product name website.

4. Avoid unpleasant surprises. If the link goes to a web page that starts a movie, or downloads a file then you should warn the user by mentioning this in the link:

You can download our review of this destination for free.

Many website visitors do not read the text on a web page but scan the highlighted keywords. For that reason, your link texts should be easy to understand & catch their attention even if people haven’t read the surrounding text.

Use keywords in your link texts whenever possible. The more often a keyword appears in a link to a specific web page, the better are the chances that this web page will get higher rankings on Google for that keyword.