Anchor Text Vs Keywords: What Is The Difference?

The marketing world is incomplete without the power of the digital landscape nowadays. With a majority of businesses transforming digital nowadays, marketers often have one question in their minds: What is the difference between anchor text and keyword? Especially for those who are not so much aware of search Engine Optimization (SEO), the concept of anchor text vs keywords has always been a matter of confusion.   

In this article, we will explore Anchor text vs Keywords in detail. But before we dive in, let us check out the basics first. 

What is Anchor Text in SEO?

Anchor text meaning is nothing but a set of text that you can incorporate with your landing page or any part of your website that you want to promote in a clickable format. The anchor text SEO is one of the most talked-about topics among digital marketers. If you want to know how to anchor text to get maximum traffic diverted towards your website, it’s easy. All you need to do is hyperlink the phrase to the desired part of your website. 

What is an Anchor Link?

An anchor link is typically a link to web pages that a company/business wants to showcase. An SEO anchor text can not only initiate website clicks but also links to downloads and documents like PDFs or files stored in Google Drive. Thus, if you are reading a piece of digital content, you should refrain from clicking any anchor which is not from trusted websites. Until you make sure the associated URL is a legitimate one, you can hover over the link with the help of your mouse but don’t click at all.

And if you are on the other side of the screen, that means, for example, you are using an exact match anchor text in your content; you should ensure that it is hyperlinking to an authentic website. But do you know what is a hyperlink? Well, the anchor text definition and hyperlink go hand in hand. The hyperlink references any data that users can follow just by clicking or tapping on it. 

Let’s check out an example:

Link Publishers is the #1 Guest Post Marketplace. 

The word ‘Link Publishers’ is the anchor text in this word. If you hover your mouse over the anchor text, you will be assured that it will link to the Link Publishers’ homepage and not any malicious website or a mysterious file. Right? 

Why is Anchor Text Important?

Anchor text is a crucial element of successful digital marketing. Some of the primary reasons behind this are:

It helps the readers understand what they should expect before clicking on the associated link with the anchor text. With anchor words, you can promise users what they can find on the other side of the link and check whether it is relevant to what you are looking for. 

It helps Google’s algorithms understand what your content’s niche is. Google uses your anchor text choices to ensure that your website is not associated with any spammy practices and figure out the kind of topics you are linking to with the help of the anchor text. 

This was a basic idea about anchor texts. Now, let us understand keywords. 

What are Keywords? 

These are some specific words that can be defined as the basic outline of your content. Keywords can be in the form of words or phrases, which you can use actively as queries in the search engines like Google, Bing, etc. If you are an aspiring content creator, your content should be what people actively look for. And incorporating google search keywords in your content can help you achieve this objective.    

What are Keywords Important in SEO?

Keywords play a very crucial role in search engine optimization. Some of the very significant roles that keywords play are:

• Identifying and speaking like how the target market does. 
• Create meaningful content for your target audience. 
• With the right keywords, you can communicate to Google that your webpage is a perfect match to people’s queries. 
• Help Google understand what is there in the webpage content and improve search engine rankings. 
• Produce your content in front of the right audience at the right time
• Attract more qualified traffic to the right webpages
• Increase your conversions rapidly by providing customers exactly what you want.

Anchor Text Vs Keywords 

Keywords are exact short phrases that people search for online. Some of the most popular keywords on Google are ‘weather’ and ‘internet’, ‘Restaurants near me, etc. There are thousands of keywords for any given topic; some have a more competitive existence than others. SEO professionals decide the competitiveness of different keywords based on a crucial factor called keyword difficulty or KD. The very hard keywords are some of the most desired ones by websites. Well, keywords are not just anything random; they are too important in SEO. There are some Google-specific keywords out there.

They are:

• Google Ad keywords – These are the keywords you choose to showcase your ads to people. 
• Google Analytics Keywords – Google Analytics is an amazing tool that you can use to monitor your website’s traffic. It can help you with many important data on a granular level; keywords are one of them. 
• Google Search Console Keywords – They are just like Google Analytics keywords; only their source is different, i.e., Google search console. If you log in to this tool and check the ‘Performance’ page, you will see every keyword in the search result or across your website. 

Like keywords, anchor texts are also some short phrases in your content. The only difference between anchor text and keywords is that the anchor text is hyperlinked to another webpage or website. If you use anchor texts and keywords correctly, it can boost your online ranking effectively.  

Do Anchor Text and Keywords Have the Same Importance in Google?

Google constantly changes its algorithms. So, it’s not easy to determine the exact weight that an anchor text and keyword carries. But most experts think that both anchor text and keywords have the same weight in terms of SEO and rankings. 

Although according to a section of people, anchor text carries is more significant than keywords because of its ability to influence Google’s understanding of a web page’s purpose, it has happened many times that quite a few websites have changed their topic by Google’s algorithms depending on the anchor texts that they have used. 

However, the biggest difference between an anchor text and a keyword is that the former is used in the form of links that can take the reader to another page of a website or another website entirely. However, keywords are those words that consumers initially type into their browser to find any website.  

What is the Relationship between Anchor Text and SEO?

Anchor text is a crucial factor in determining how viable any website is. This can significantly impact your SEO. When it comes to Google rankings, anchor text is not the only factor, but it truly plays a very important role in making sure your website is visible right at the top of the search engine. Anchor text has a huge role in SEO because it helps readers understand where they can find such information they are looking for; this is what Google takes very seriously right now. 

Can You Use Keywords as Anchor Text?

Yes, it can surely be done, but if you do too much of that, it can harm your SEO drastically. There is no definite anchor text ratio. Rather, you need to keep your anchor text diverse. You will have six categories to choose from; they are:

• Use the exact keyword 
• A varied phrase of the precise keyword
• Hyperlinking the name of your brand
• Using simple anchor texts like ‘click here. 
• Getting a naked URL linked

Using smart online tools like Ahrefs will allow you to check all of your links and see whether all the six categories of anchor texts are used equally or not. 

Take Your Website’s SEO to the Next Level with Link Publishers 

Link Publishers is the #1 guest post marketplace. You can buy guest posts from us. Moreover, we also offer high-class guest posting services. So, if you want to explore our guest post services, contact us today. 

Also, we offer excellent content writing services and do amazing search engine optimization for you. So, if you work with us, you can be assured that we will take care of all your needs, from keyword placement to using the right anchor texts. If you hire a content writer from us, they will create the perfect content for you, enriched with the best keywords and anchor texts. Our writers are skilled, experienced, and empowered; they know what is the keyword for Google. 

Wrapping Up 

Hopefully, if you were confused about anchor text vs. keywords, it is clear now! We have discussed these two aspects and their importance in SEO driven Content Writing. So, what are you waiting for? Start making your content SEO-centric from now, and your website will surely rank right at the top of the search engine.

For premium SEO services and insights, let’s talk soon!