From My Desk to Yours – 7th Edition

By: Penny, EzineArticles Managing Editor

Def: Anchor Text – The visible, clickable text in a hyperlink. (From Wikipedia)

In an article, anchor text (a.k.a. anchored text) is the blue, underlined word or phrase that the reader can click on to be automatically linked to a website. Like this link to the EzineArticles Submit page.

Anchor text is not a website URL. For example, http://EzineArticles.com/submit/ is not “anchor text”, it is a hyperlinked URL.

EzineArticles Editorial Guidelines state: “Please limit your anchor text link length to 3 words.” Authors that use anchor text in their articles must adhere to this guideline. Articles that have quality content and a higher word count may be given some flexibility. We will only allow 4-5 words in anchor text if the article has good quality content.

What is “Quality” Content?

Articles that have quality content offer unique, valuable and/or educational information. In general these articles will have a higher word count.

We Ask These 2 Questions to Determine Quality:

  1. Is the reader getting a good user experience?
    • Is the content after the landing page good?
    • Does the link provide the information that the author promises?
  2. What is the author’s intention?
    • Is the landing page filled with affiliate products and have no content?
    • Is the main reason for the article to drive traffic to the affiliate links?

Examples of Allowable Anchor Text:

  • Identity Theft Family Law Attorney – This article has 506 words, is titled “Important Tips to Know to Help Prevent Identity Theft” and has good quality content.
  • Develop Communication and Team Working Skills – This article has 493 words. Its title is “How to Be a Good Team Leader to Gain the Advantages of Team Work”. It gives 17 tips and has great quality content.
  • Real Estate Signs Mastery Blog – This article is 985 words long and has good quality content about Real Estate.

Quality content does not include regurgitated and thin content. Articles that are about common and repetitive subjects will not be allowed to have more than three words in their anchor text links.

Examples of NOT Allowable Anchor Text:

  • How to Get your EX Back
  • Lose Weight with Acai Berry
  • All Natural Hemorrhoid Treatment

Remember, our editors may not change your anchor text or alter the number of words. They can only approve or not approve it.

Bottom Line: Write high-quality articles that offer unique, valuable and/or educational information if you want to use anchor text that is longer than 3 words.

If you have any questions about anchor text links or thoughts about this particular guideline, please leave a comment.

Posted by on February 9, 2010 at 2:38 pm | 6,537 views

22 Comments »


1
Lisa writes:

Great info as always, thanks!

Comment provided February 9, 2010 at 3:46 PM

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2
Kathryn Merrow - The Pain Relief Coach writes:

Does this mean that if wanted to direct a reader to an article in my own website for further information inside of my EzineArticle article (or to the website of someone else) I could?

Thank you for all of your help. Appreciated!

Comment provided February 9, 2010 at 4:13 PM

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Penny, Managing Editor writes:

Kathyrn,

If I understand this right, you want to link to a website that further clarifies your point? Yes, of course you can.

What you don’t want to do it link to a site so the reader can then get the rest of the information you promised to deliver in the article. But to add more value to your point, yes, link to your site and deliver more.

February 10, 2010 at 9:31 AM

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3
Marte writes:

I’ll second Kathryn’s question. I never use links in my articles because I have never felt clear on what is or isn’t acceptable.

Comment provided February 9, 2010 at 4:21 PM

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Penny, Managing Editor writes:

Marte,

You should link to site that offers relevant information directly related to your niche. Don’t write about dogs, and link to finances. Readers want to know more about what you just wrote about. If they wanted finance, they would have read a finance related article. :)

February 10, 2010 at 9:57 AM

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Lisa writes:

Glad you brought this up because I see this on a regular basis.

February 10, 2010 at 9:59 AM

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4
Joseph E. Efoghor writes:

Thanks for your article, but how are anchor text links inserted into an article? Could you please give me guidelines on how to do it myself?.

Comment provided February 10, 2010 at 12:56 AM

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Marc, Product Marketing Manager writes:

A anchor text link like this one to the EzineArticles Home Page would take this form in your article:

<a href="http://EzineArticles.com/">EzineArticles Home Page</a>

The full URL, including the http:// is inserted between the quotes and the readable text is inserted between the > <.

February 10, 2010 at 8:59 AM

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5
Sam writes:

Do you have a definitive list of “common and repetitive subjects”? I know that the get your ex back and acai berry topics are pretty saturated, but I’m sure there are other topics that maybe aren’t so obvious (at least not to me!). It would be helpful to know exactly which niches fall under this rule.

thanks

Comment provided February 10, 2010 at 3:57 AM

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6
Kathryn Merrow - The Pain Relief Coach writes:

Thank you, Marc & Penny. Appreciated!

Comment provided February 10, 2010 at 10:31 AM

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7
Geoff writes:

I`ve only once had a reminder where my anchor text was too long. It was no big deal though just to shorten it.

Comment provided February 11, 2010 at 8:41 AM

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8
Ramon Greenwood writes:

You’ve got me totally confused,

First you write: “Please limit your anchor text link to 3 words.”

Then you show examples of five and six words.

Which is correct?

Many thanks…Ramon Greenwood

Comment provided February 11, 2010 at 9:49 AM

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Lisa writes:

Because some of the examples were longer articles with great quality content.

Penny says, “Articles that have quality content and a higher word count may be given some flexibility. We will only allow 4-5 words in anchor text if the article has good quality content.”

So typically 3 or under but for longer articles with really exceptional content, some exceptions may be made.

February 11, 2010 at 9:53 AM

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Penny, Managing Editor writes:

Ramon,

Lisa is right.

Here are the guidelines for the words allowed in anchor text.

Article <400 words = 1-3 words max.
Article >400 words = 1-5 words max.

February 12, 2010 at 11:40 AM

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Rand Spencer writes:

Isn’t it 400 words = 1-5 words max

February 16, 2010 at 11:56 PM

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Penny, Managing Editor writes:

Rand,

An article with less than 400 words will only be allowed 1-3 words in anchor text. Anything greater than 400 words will be allowed 1-5 words. (If my transposed ‘greater than’ and ‘less than’ signs confused you, my apologies. I fixed them.) :)

February 17, 2010 at 8:47 AM

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9
Horace Crosby writes:

When I’m writing articles in a series, should I mention in each article the number within the series that it is?

Comment provided January 11, 2012 at 5:25 PM

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Marc, Product Marketing Manager writes:

Horace –

The short answer to your question is no, you shouldn’t number each article in a series. Each article should stand on its own even if it is part of series. I know that sounds a little confusing, so check out this blog post for a more in-depth explanation: http://blog.EzineArticles.com/2011/07/2-minute-tips-article-series.html

– Marc

January 12, 2012 at 8:31 AM

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10
Helen Thompson writes:

If I’m adding a URL as a link do I need to have http:/ visible? Ideally I’d prefer it not to be.

Thanks

Comment provided June 26, 2012 at 9:35 AM

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Marc, Product Marketing Manager writes:

Helen –

In those situations you want to use anchor text. Anchor text, in essence, “hides” the URL behind the clickable text. To learn more about it, check out this blog post: http://blog.EzineArticles.com/2010/10/monitor-anchor-text.html … or in this case, we could say: Check out this blog post. :-)

– Marc

June 27, 2012 at 2:26 PM

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11
Sevgi writes:

I placed an anchor link as “get your ex boyfriend back” but I saw that only the hyperlinked URL showed on the published article. Isn’t it permitted?

Comment provided November 4, 2012 at 8:24 AM

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Vanessa, Editorial Manager writes:

HI Sevgi,

In order to make your text links in the body of your article active, you need to add HTML. To make text associated with a link clickable, you will need to make it look like this:

<a href="http://YourCompanyName.com/" rel="nofollow">CLICKABLE TEXT</a>

We also recommend the video in the following blog post: http://blog.EzineArticles.com/2010/03/html-basics-for-the-expert-author.html

If you still have any questions regarding creating anchor text in your articles we suggest contacting our Member Support Team via the ‘Contact Us’ button inside your My.EzineArticles account.

~Vanessa

November 5, 2012 at 9:01 AM

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