It’s not very often Google share insights into their algorithm – so when they do, we think it’s good to share them!
There are some technical elements to the update, and some user experience elements. If you want the full technical detail, here is Google’s briefing.
If we focus on the user experience elements of the update, these are the things that you can action easily whilst you are creating content for your site :
Anchor Text
Anchor text is the visible text in your link.
Google are looking for anchor text to explain clearly what it is linking to. So, create the link descriptively rather than using “click here”, “read more” etc.
As an example, if we wanted to add a link to the following sentence, we would create the link from “SEO guide to Small Businesses”, as it’s the name of the blog, rather than using “Click here”
Click here to find out how SME businesses can get a handle on the basics of SEO in our SEO guide for Small Businesses.
This applies when you use images as links – make sure your alt-text is descriptive here too.
Good Anchor Text
Google is looking for Anchor text to :
- Be descriptive
- Be concise
- Be relevant to the page it is on, and the page it is linking to
- Use natural language (i.e. no keyword stuffing)
The better your anchor text, the easier it is for both your readers and Google to navigate.
Here’s a good example from Google
Internal linking
Google sees well placed internal links as re-enforcements of your site content. Each page containing your most valuable content should have at least one link to it from another page on your site, and be referenced regularly in appropriate blogs.
External linking
Linking to other sites shows that you are being open and honest about your data sources. When they are used well, Google uses these types of links as evidence of your trustworthiness.
So, cite your sources in your link – not only for Google, but also for your readers as it’s helpful if they want to understand more about the context of what you are saying.
Use “no follow” when you are citing a site in a negative context – you don’t want to give them a valuable backlink in the process!
Summary
Links represent valuable ranking factors in the Google algorithm, so it’s always worth taking the time to make sure they meet best practise.
Find out more about winning quality backlinks in our recent blog.
