Changing the title of a link, also known as the anchor text, is an important aspect of search engine optimization (SEO). The anchor text tells both users and search engines what a link is about. Links with descriptive, relevant anchor text tend to rank better in search results. There are a few different ways to edit the anchor text of a link, depending on where the link is located.
Why is anchor text important?
Anchor text is considered one of the most important ranking factors by search engines like Google. The words used in your anchor text signal to Google the topic and relevance of the page you are linking to. Links with generic anchor text like “click here” and “read more” don’t give search engines much useful information. Links with anchor text that matches the content of the page you are linking to tells Google, “This page is about this specific topic.”
Some key benefits of descriptive anchor text:
– Helps Google understand the topic of linked content
– Passes link equity and authority to linked pages
– Improves click-through rates when anchor text is compelling
Anchor text is analyzed not just on individual links, but across all the links pointing to a certain page. This collection of anchor text helps Google understand what the consensus is about what that page is about.
How to change anchor text in WordPress
If your link is located in a WordPress blog post or page, changing the anchor text is simple. Here are the steps:
1. Edit the post or page containing the link.
2. Select the linked text you want to edit.
3. Unlink the text by clicking the “unlink” icon in the editor toolbar. This will cause the link to disappear but leave the original text selected.
4. Change the selected text to your new anchor text.
5. Add in the link again by selecting the new anchor text and clicking the “link” icon in the toolbar. Paste in the target URL.
6. Update the post/page and view it to make sure your new anchor text is showing properly.
This process allows you to change the visible clickable anchor text while retaining the original link target.
How to change anchor text in HTML
To edit anchor text in HTML, you just need to alter the text between the tags like this:
“`html
New anchor text
“`
The key is to leave the HREF URL intact and only change the text between the opening and closing tag.
Here’s a full example:
“`html
Before:
Old anchor text
After:
New anchor text
“`
This makes it easy to optimize the anchor text without affecting the link functionality.
How to change anchor text in JavaScript
Using JavaScript, you can dynamically set the text of a link to change the anchor text.
For example:
“`js
const anchor = document.querySelector(‘a’);
anchor.textContent = ‘New anchor text’;
“`
This will find the first tag on the page and update its text to “New anchor text”.
To target a specific link, give it an ID and select it directly:
“`js
const anchor = document.getElementById(‘myLink’);
anchor.textContent = ‘Changed anchor text’;
“`
You can also loop through all links and update them programmatically:
“`js
const anchors = document.querySelectorAll(‘a’);
anchors.forEach(function(anchor) {
anchor.textContent = ‘Anchor text changed’;
});
“`
This makes changing anchor text in JavaScript a straightforward process.
How to change the anchor text link in Shopify
To change an anchor text link in Shopify:
1. Go to Online Store > Themes.
2. Select Actions > Edit code.
3. In the Assets folder, locate the file containing the link you want to edit. Common files include header.liquid, footer.liquid, and theme.liquid.
4. Find the HTML `` tag for the link and edit the text between the open and close tag:
“`liquid
New anchor text
“`
5. Save your changes.
6. Preview your online store or view the live site to confirm the new anchor text appears.
This allows you to customize anchor text in Shopify themes without changing the destination URL.
How to change anchor text in Squarespace
Here are the steps to update anchor text for a link in Squarespace:
1. Go to the Pages section.
2. Select the page containing the link you want to edit.
3. Click the gear icon to edit the page.
4. Find the link block and click the linked text.
5. Type the new anchor text while keeping the URL intact.
6. Click outside the text box to save the new anchor text.
7. Preview or publish the page to confirm the change took effect.
Squarespace makes it easy to quickly update anchor text right within the page editor. Just be sure not to accidentally delete the URL when editing the text.
How to change anchor text in Wix
To change the anchor text on a link in Wix, follow these steps:
1. Edit the page containing the link.
2. Click on the linked text to open the link editor.
3. Under “Text”, delete the current anchor text and type the new text.
4. Make sure the URL is still correctly entered under “Link to”.
5. Click Apply to save the new anchor text.
6. Preview your page and ensure the link text has updated.
Wix provides an inline link editor that makes it simple to customize the visible anchor text without affecting the link URL itself. Updating anchor text this way can help improve your site’s SEO.
How to change anchor text site-wide
Here are some tips for efficiently changing anchor text across an entire website:
– Use find and replace in WordPress to change all instances of certain anchor text to new text. Just be careful not to accidentally replace other important text.
– Do a find for `` tags.
– Use JavaScript or jQuery to select all links and loop through to update `element.textContent` to new anchor text.
– For Shopify, do a find all for ` Editor that can be used to replace anchor text across all pages.
– Many CMS platforms offer SEO plugins that have a bulk link editing feature to streamline changing anchor text site wide.
The key is finding a way to systematically manipulate the text between the opening and closing link tags across all pages. Testing first and using backups is critical when making anchor text changes at scale.
Should you change anchor text of external links?
When linking out to external websites, you generally want to use branded anchor text with the site name:
For example:
“`html
Read more about anchor text on the Moz blog.
“`
However, there are some cases where you may want to change the external site’s anchor text:
– If the site name doesn’t convey the relevance of the page, use descriptive text.
– You can use keywords when linking to authority sites about that topic.
– Include a specific page’s title to provide more context.
– Use generic text like “this article” if page relevance is low.
– Consider editing the anchor text when repurposing old links to improve context.
So evaluate each external link and determine if branding the site name makes the most sense for your context or if changing the anchor text would be beneficial.
Should you change anchor text of internal links?
With internal links pointing to other pages on your own site, you typically want to use highly descriptive, keyword-rich anchor text. This helps convey the relevance of the pages you are linking between.
Some best practices for internal anchor text:
– Include important keywords from the target page in the anchor text
– Write descriptive phrases that summarize what the page is about
– Use keywords users would search for to find that content
– Avoid over-optimization with exact match keyword anchor text
– Include branded names for linking to key pages like “About Us”
– Use compelling, front-loaded anchor text that encourages clicks
Internal anchor text optimization is crucial for providing contextual cues about your site’s structure and content to search engines. Putting effort into your internal linking anchor text is a worthwhile endeavor for SEO.
Can changing anchor text improve SEO?
Yes, optimizing anchor text is widely considered one of the best ways to directly improve SEO rankings. Google places a lot of weight on keywords and topics conveyed by the anchor text of inbound links.
Some key benefits:
– Links with keyword-rich anchor text can help pages rank for those terms
– Optimized internal linking improves relevance signals between related content
– Fixing outdated, off-topic, and generic anchor text clarifies page relevance
– Anchor text helps search bots crawl and index sites more intelligently
Without quality anchor text, search engines may struggle to grasp what a page is about and how it should rank. Evaluating and improving your overall anchor text profile is a powerful SEO tactic. Just don’t overdo keyword optimization to the point of appearing spammy.
Anchor text guidelines to avoid over-optimization
Here are some key guidelines for anchor text optimization best practices:
– Avoid linking with the exact same anchor text repeatedly, which looks unnatural.
– Vary your anchor text wording, including branded, descriptive, and strategic keywords.
– Only a small percentage of links should contain your target keywords. Most should use natural phrasing.
– Ensure you have a diversity of linking domains pointing at each page with different anchor text.
– Refrain from using keywords in links from unrelated sites, as this appears manipulative.
– Don’t change too many links at once, which can destroy your anchor text profile. Make incremental improvements over time.
Strike a balance between SEO benefits and natural linking patterns. Monitor your overall anchor text makeup periodically to ensure variety. With thoughtful optimization, anchor text can powerfully boost rankings.
Tools to analyze anchor text
Here are some useful tools to evaluate a website’s overall anchor text profile:
– **Ahrefs** – Provides anchor text analysis to see top keywords and phrases. Identifies issues like over-optimization.
– **Moz** – Tracks top anchor text metrics for a site and ranks pages by links and authority passed.
– **Majestic** – Quantifies the diversity and power of a site’s backlink anchor text makeup.
– **SEMrush** – Generates an anchor text report to visualize links by type, discover missed opportunities, and identify outliers.
– **Screaming Frog** – Crawls pages and exports anchor text data for all internal links on a site.
– **Google Search Console** – Provides anchor text specifics for links to your site indexed by Google under Links report.
Analyzing anchor text should be an ongoing process to find areas for improvement and monitor changes over time. The data these tools provide can directly inform link building and anchor text optimization efforts.
Common anchor text issues to fix
Here are some common anchor text problems to look for:
– **Over-optimized** – Too many links with exact match commercial keywords.
– **Manipulative** – Unnatural links using keywords from unrelated sites.
– **Low relevance** – Lots of vague, generic terms like “click here” and “read more”.
– **Spammy** – Keyword-stuffing and excessive repeating of the same phrases.
– **Outdated** – Old anchor text no longer relevant for reinvented content.
– **Inconsistent** – Mix of branded, generic and descriptive anchor text to the same page.
– **No branding** – Lacking enough links with your company/product/site name.
– **Too commercial** – Overuse of product and promotion-focused anchor text.
Fixing these types of issues through editing existing links or building new, optimized links can directly boost SEO. Analyze anchor text regularly.
Tips for optimizing existing anchor text
To improve existing anchor text:
– Add strategic keywords where relevant, especially for internal links between topically-related content.
– Fix overly promotional/salesy anchor text pointing at key informational pages.
– Update outdated anchor text on old links going to refreshed content.
– Replace generic “click here” text with specific descriptive phrases.
– Switch low-value links to brand anchor text rather than removing entirely.
– Eliminate or rework manipulative keyword-stuffed links.
– Create new natural links with ideal anchor text to dilute old spammy links.
– Use linking opportunities within content to boost anchors with keywords.
– Make sure important pages have branded anchor text from key locations like nav menu.
Take an incremental and thoughtful approach to optimize anchors without sudden drastic changes.
Tips for building new links with optimized anchor text
When building new links, keep these anchor text optimization tips in mind:
– Look for opportunities to include strategic keywords naturally in anchor text of new links, especially from high-authority domains.
– Prioritize building links with keywords that are under-represented in current anchor text profile.
– Create natural links that build a diverse profile with branded, descriptive and keyword anchor text.
– Guest posting is an effective way to gain new keyword-rich and branded anchor text links. Make sure content is very relevant.
– Only build links with exact match commercial keywords sparingly, ideally from sites in your general niche.
– Focus on building links from domains with varied existing anchor text profiles pointing at your site.
– Include target keywords in naturally fitting anchor text when linking out from your own content.
With a balanced anchor text growth strategy, new links can greatly improve your SEO over time. Just avoid shortcuts like manipulative links.
Conclusion
Optimizing your website’s anchor text is a powerful way to directly influence search rankings by shaping how search engines interpret the relevance of linked content. Carefully changing existing anchor text and building new strategic links can boost SEO results. However, it’s important to maintain a natural anchor text profile and avoid overusing keywords. With the right approach, elevating your anchor text game can drive more qualified organic traffic from search engines over the long-term.