What is the SEO Value of No Anchor Text in Links?
July 6, 2011 by David
Filed under Domain Development, Domains & Websites, Featured Articles, HTML code, Programming, Search Engine Optimization, Website Development
This is regarding anchor text in a link. Of course, website owners and html programmers realize the importance of having “anchor text” in a link which appears on the page before the closing tag but the issue is regarding the effect of “not” using any visible anchor text.
For example, on many blogs and websites there are often images which are clickable and go to a linked site since the clickable-link is in the code. However, the image is often there mostly for its graphical impact and also acts as a link when clicked. However, there is no indication to the site visitor to click-on the link and in fact the visitor may not realize they can click on the image to visit a linked website.
The question is does the fact there may be NO visible anchor text detract or even eliminate the link value in the search engines and if the answer is yes, to what degree does it negate or dilute the value of the link?
An example of this question is the picture of the anchor below. When clicked-on the link goes to the home-page of this website but what is the effect (if any) of there being no visible anchor text on the page?
I think keyword rich anchor text provides more relevance and therefore more value to the link, but a link is still good without anchor text.
Now with so many blogs having the nofollow on comment links and with Google putting less weight on anchor text.. I don’t think its that big of a deal anymore.