Perfect Anchor Text Ratio

I am going to show you the perfect anchor text ratio to use to rank number one on Google search.

I have analysed the anchor text profile of many top ranking sites, mostly Amazon affiliate sites.

All of the sites are ranked number one for their keyword, these guys have the perfect anchor text ratio.

I am going to reveal my results here for you guys to see and use. This will save you some research time in the future.

I did this research quite a while ago for myself to use. I have updated the results so that they are relevant and working today.

So I will give you a keyword, then reveal the anchor text profile for that top ranking site.

Then I will use all the data to reveal the perfect anchor text ratio, this is exactly what I am using today.

All monthly search volume data is for Google.com and comes courtesy of the serps.com free keyword research tool.

To check the anchor text profile of any site you can use ahrefs.com (free account) and/or SEO Spyglass free software.

All seo difficulty scores are taken from kwfinder.com.

To check the web site word count and keyword density I use this seobook.com tool.

Anchor Text Ratio For Top Rank Sites

Keyword: best electric shaver

SEO Difficulty: 41

Search volume: 14,800

Top Ranking URL: http://groomandstyle.com/art-of-shaving/mens-top-5-best-electric-shaver-list/

Content: 5188 words

Keyword Density: 0.42%

MOZ METRICS: PA: 41 DA: 34 LINKS: 574

Results:

Brand: 0%

Title tag: 18%

Exact match: 13%

Part match: 13%

Long tail with exact keyword: 3%

LSI keyword synonyms: 3%

Full open URL: 8%

website.com URL: 5%

www.website.com URL: 0%

Generic: 0%

No text: 3%

Authors name: 0%

Long tail random: 0%

---

 

keyword: best electric toothbrush

SEO Difficulty: 48

Search volume: 22,200

Top Ranking URL: http://www.reviews.com/best-electric-toothbrush/

Content: 2396 words

Keyword Density: 0.82%

MOZ METRICS: PA: 44 DA: 68 LINKS: 2,000

Results:

Brand: 0%

Title tag: 13%

Exact match: 7%

Part match: 7%

Long tail with exact keyword: 0%

LSI keyword synonyms: 0%

Full open URL: 13%

website.com URL: 7%

www.website.com URL: 0%

Generic: 14%

No text: 0%

Authors name: 0%

Long tail random: 0%

---

 

Keyword: best electric smoker

SEO Difficulty: 41

Search volume: 4,400

Top Ranking URL: http://www.smokeyhousebbq.com/best-electric-smoker-reviews-2014/

Content: 1774 words

Keyword Density: 0.75%

MOZ METRICS: PA: 22 DA: 14 LINKS: 14

Results:

Brand: 0%

Title tag: 44%

Exact match: 0%

Part match: 11%

Long tail with exact keyword: 11%

LSI keyword synonyms: 11%

Full open URL: 0%

website.com URL: 0%

www.website.com URL: 0%

Generic: 11%

No text: 0%

Authors name: 0%

Long tail random: 11%

---

 

Keyword: best survival knife

SEO Difficulty: 41

Search volume: 9,900

Top Ranking URL: https://www.carlsonknives.com/best-survival-knife/

Content: 2930 words

Keyword Density: 0.56%

MOZ METRICS: PA: 43 DA: 37 LINKS: 146

Results:

Brand: 0%

Title tag: 1%

Exact match: 73%

Part match: 3%

Long tail with exact keyword: 3%

LSI keyword synonyms: 0%

Full open URL: 0%

website.com URL: 0%

www.website.com URL: 0%

Generic: 0%

No text: 0%

Authors name: 1%

Long tail random: 3%

---

 

Keyword: top work boots

SEO Difficulty: 39

Search volume: 320

Top Ranking URL: http://www.topworkboots.com/

Content: 2157 words

Keyword Density: 0%

MOZ METRICS: PA: 28 DA: 15 LINKS: 12

Results:

Brand: 0%

Title tag: 28%

Exact match: 0%

Part match: 0%

Long tail with exact keyword: 0%

LSI keyword synonyms: 3%

Full open URL: 3%

website.com URL: 13%

www.website.com URL: 0%

Generic: 6%

No text: 3%

Authors name: 0%

Long tail random: 6%

---

 

Keyword: best epilator

SEO Difficulty: 39

Search volume: 3,600

Top Ranking URL: http://asmoothlife.com/

Content: 1482 words

Keyword Density: 0.47%

MOZ METRICS: PA: 31 DA: 19 LINKS: 46

Results:

Brand: 11%

Title tag: 0%

Exact match: 19%

Part match: 0%

Long tail with exact keyword: 0%

LSI keyword synonyms: 0%

Full open URL: 8%

website.com URL: 0%

www.website.com URL: 0%

Generic: 0%

No text: 6%

Authors name: 0%

Long tail random: 12%

---

 

Keyword: best bedwetting alarm

SEO Difficulty: 45

Search volume: 320

Top Ranking URL: http://bedwettingstore.com/buyers-guide-alarms.html

Content: 1422 words

Keyword Density: 0%

MOZ METRICS: PA: 26 DA: 43 LINKS: 42

Results:

Brand: 0%

Title tag: 30%

Exact match: 0%

Part match: 0%

Long tail with exact keyword: 0%

LSI keyword synonyms: 10%

Full open URL: 10%

website.com URL: 0%

www.website.com URL: 0%

Generic: 20%

No text: 0%

Authors name: 0%

Long tail random: 0%

---

 

Keyword: best board games

SEO Difficulty: 61

Search volume: 18,100

Top Ranking URL: http://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/gaming/g18/15-best-new-board-games-of-the-year/

Content: 1155 words

Keyword Density: 0%

MOZ METRICS: PA: 59 DA: 87 LINKS: 47

Results:

Brand: 4%

Title tag: 6%

Exact match: 0%

Part match: 15%

Long tail with exact keyword: 15%

LSI keyword synonyms: 0%

Full open URL: 8%

website.com URL: 4%

www.website.com URL: 0%

Generic: 2%

No text: 0%

Authors name: 0%

Long tail random: 0%

---

 

Keyword: best carpet cleaner

SEO Difficulty: 43

Search volume: 14,800

Top Ranking URL: http://www.coit.com/schedule/top-five-carpet-cleaning-machines

Content: 1280 words

Keyword Density: 0.47%

MOZ METRICS: PA: 21  DA: 42 LINKS: 18

Results:

Brand: 3%

Title tag: 31%

Exact match: 0%

Part match: 0%

Long tail with exact keyword: 20%

LSI keyword synonyms: 0%

Full open URL: 0%

website.com URL: 3%

www.website.com URL: 0%

Generic: 0%

No text: 0%

Authors name: 0%

Long tail random: 9%

---

 

Keyword: best gifts for men

SEO Difficulty: 58

Search volume: 12,100

Top Ranking URL: http://www.uncommongoods.com/gifts/by-recipient/gifts-for-men

Content: 650 words

Keyword Density: 0%

MOZ METRICS: PA: 63 DA: 73 LINKS: 5,447

Results:

Brand: 7%

Title tag: 13%

Exact match: 0%

Part match: 0%

Long tail with exact keyword: 0%

LSI keyword synonyms: 0%

Full open URL: 7%

website.com URL: 0%

www.website.com URL: 0%

Generic: 5%

No text: 0%

Authors name: 0%

Long tail random: 12%

---

 

Keyword: best hair dryer

SEO Difficulty: 54

Search volume: 18,100

Top Ranking URL: http://www.allure.com/gallery/best-hair-dryers

Content: 981 words

Keyword Density: 0%

MOZ METRICS: PA: 55 DA: 84 LINKS: 40

Results:

Brand: 8%

Title tag: 22%

Exact match: 0%

Part match: 0%

Long tail with exact keyword: 0%

LSI keyword synonyms: 6%

Full open URL: 0%

website.com URL: 6%

www.website.com URL: 0%

Generic: 6%

No text: 0%

Authors name: 0%

Long tail random: 3%

---

 

Keyword: best hair straightener

SEO Difficulty: 42

Search volume: 14,800

Top Ranking URL: http://www.hairstraightenerstudio.com/

Content: 1552 words

Keyword Density: 0%

MOZ METRICS: PA: 40 DA: 28 LINKS: 190

Results:

Brand: 14%

Title tag: 7%

Exact match: 0%

Part match: 7%

Long tail with exact keyword: 0%

LSI keyword synonyms: 0%

Full open URL: 8%

website.com URL: 3%

www.website.com URL: 5%

Generic: 0%

No text: 0%

Authors name: 5%

Long tail random: 9%

---

 

Keyword: best humidifier

SEO Difficulty: 49

Search volume: 14,800

Top Ranking URL: http://thesweethome.com/reviews/the-best-humidifier/

Content: 6255 words

Keyword Density: 0.12%

MOZ METRICS: PA: 38 DA: 57 LINKS: 16

Results:

Brand: 30%

Title tag: 0%

Exact match: 0%

Part match: 6%

Long tail with exact keyword: 0%

LSI keyword synonyms: 0%

Full open URL: 11%

website.com URL: 5%

www.website.com URL: 0%

Generic: 3%

No text: 0%

Authors name: 0%

Long tail random: 0%

---

 

Keyword: best juicer

SEO Difficulty: 43

Search volume: 14,800

Top Ranking URL: http://www.juicerfanatics.com/

Content: 1557 words

Keyword Density: 0.81%

MOZ METRICS: PA: 39 DA: 27 LINKS: 95

Results:

Brand: 13%

Title tag: 6%

Exact match: 0%

Part match: 3%

Long tail with exact keyword: 0%

LSI keyword synonyms: 0%

Full open URL: 8%

website.com URL: 15%

www.website.com URL: 0%

Generic: 0%

No text: 0%

Authors name: 3%

Long tail random: 5%

What Is The Perfect Anchor Text Ratio?

One thing should hit you right away when looking at the results.

The most popular anchor text to use is the page TITLE TAG.

You will also notice that long tail anchors work really well these days too.

You will also notice that it is not an exact science. Some sites with a very high exact match anchor text ratio can still rank at the top of Google search.

Here are the results in order of popularity:

1. TITLE TAG
2. Full Open URL
3. website.com
4. Long Tail Random
5. Brand
6. Part Match
7. Generic
8. Long Tail Exact
9. LSI Keyword Synonyms
10. Exact Match
11. No Text
12. Authors Name
13. www.website.com

Now you all want to know what the perfect anchor text ratio is.

Well guess what, I am going to reveal it to you right now.

I am going to give you what is working for me right now.

Based on these results, on average, these sites use Brand anchors 6.42% of the time.

The sweethome.com site uses brand anchors 30% of the time, this is exactly what I do.

Google has a stalk on for brands. What better way to show you have a brand than throwing many Brand anchors out there.

You don’t have to be exact with this, it is a very loose guide for you to follow.

As you can see, many of the sites have a very different anchor text profile.

Let’s dive right into it;

• Brand: 30%
• TITLE TAG: 15%
• Full Open URL: 9%
• Exact Match: 8%
• website.com: 7%
• Long Tail Random: 6%
• Part Match: 6%
• Generic: 6%
• Long Tail Exact: 5%
• LSI keyword Synonyms: 5%
• No Text: 1%
• Authors Name: 1%
• www.website.com: 1%

This is what I have been using in 2016. If you mix up your anchor text like this it will work right through 2017 and beyond.

If you are using my Web 2.0 backlink strategy right now, do not worry, that anchor text ratio works and is a good way to get some new content moving up the SERPs.

However you must be aware that it is not a great idea to continue building backlinks to the same page with the same anchor text principle as shown on my Web 2.0 backlinks strategy post. You are going to have to mix up your anchor text profile going forward, or your site is sure to get hit.

Also, for those of you that do not know what a “No Text” anchor is, I will explain.

To get a “No Text” backlink anchor you can drop an image in some content, then link the image to your site. Do not give the image an “ALT TAG”, this will ensure that you get a “No Text” backlink anchor.

You can get a “No Text” anchor from Web 2.0 sites like WordPress.com and Blogspot.com. You can’t get a “No Text” backlink from Tumblr.

Plan Your Anchor Text Profile

Most of the time I build backlinks in groups of 10.

A safe strategy is to index 3 to 5 backlinks per day using Google Console.

You can index more backlinks per site per day, only do 3 per post.

So, you can index 3 backlinks for one post, and 3 backlinks for another post on the same site per day.

You can copy the following anchor text profile into a spread sheet;

Round 1:

1. Brand
2. TITLE TAG
3. Full Open URL
4. Brand
5. website.com
6. Exact Match
7. TITLE TAG
8. Brand
9. Long Tail Random
10. Part Match

Round 2:

1. Generic
2. Brand
3. TITLE TAG
4. Full Open URL
5. LSI Keyword Synonyms
6. Brand
7. Long Tail Exact
8. Exact Match
9. TITLE TAG
10. Brand

Round 3:

1. website.com
2. LSI Keyword Synonyms
3. Generic
4. Brand
5. TITLE TAG
6. Full Open URL
7. Long Tail Random
8. Brand
9. Part Match
10. Exact Match

Round 4:

1. TITLE TAG
2. Brand
3. No Text
4. Long Tail Exact
5. website.com
6. Brand
7. Full Open URL
8. TITLE TAG
9. Generic
10. Brand

Round 5:

1. LSI Keyword Synonyms
2. Exact Match
3. Long Tail Random
4. Brand
5. Part Match
6. TITLE TAG
7. Full Open URL
8. Brand
9. website.com
10. Authors Name

Round 6:

1. Long Tail Exact
2. Brand
3. TITLE TAG
4. Brand
5. Exact Match
6. Brand
7. Generic
8. Full Open URL
9. Brand
10. TITLE TAG

Round 7:

1. Long Tail Random
2. Part Match
3. Brand
4. website.com
5. LSI Keyword Synonyms
6. Brand
7. TITLE TAG
8. Exact Match
9. Full Open URL
10. Brand

Round 8:

1. Long Tail Exact
2. Generic
3. Brand
4. TITLE TAG
5. Brand
6. Long Tail Random
7. Brand
8. website.com
9. Exact Match
10. Brand

Round 9:

1. TITLE TAG
2. Full Open URL
3. Part Match
4. Brand
5. www.website.com
6. LSI Keyword Synonyms
7. Brand
8. Generic
9. TITLE TAG
10. Long Tail Exact

Round 10:

1. Brand
2. Exact Match
3. website.com
4. Brand
5. Full Open URL
6. Long Tail Random
7. Brand
8. Part Match
9. TITLE TAG
10. Brand

After each set of 100 backlinks, if you need to go that far to hit the top spot, make sure that you change the following anchor texts:

• Part Match
• Long Tail Random
• Generic
• Long Tail Exact
• LSI Keyword Synonyms

For example, if I used “here” for my generic anchor on the first set of 100 backlinks, I would use ” visit this site” on the second set of 100 backlinks.

Or if I used “best epilator for face and legs” as my long tail exact on the first set of 100 backlinks, I would use “best epilator to use on your underarms” in the second set of 100 backlinks.

Now I am going to give you a set of anchor text examples.

Anchor Text Examples

I will run through some anchor text examples for my Amazon Affiliate site case study.

This is what my anchor text profile would look like for this page:

The keyword for that page is:

Brand:

TITLE TAG:

The top line in the Google search results is the TITLE TAG for my page. That is what I will use as a TITLE TAG anchor for a backlink to that particular post.

The TITLE TAG is:

Full Open URL:

Exact Match:

website.com:

Long Tail Random:

easy way to remove peach fuzz hair fast with little pain

Part Match:

Generic:

here

Long Tail Exact:

LSI keyword Synonyms:

To get synonyms of your keywords you can use Thesaurus.com.

To get LSI keywords in your niche look at the bottom of the SERPs:

All phrases circled in red can be used as your LSI keywords (Latent Semantic Indexing).

These are keywords that are related to your main money keyword.

You can also use this free LSI keyword generator tool to get the job done.

No Text:

This will be a backlink from an image that does not have an “ALT TAG “, which is the text alternative for the image. Miss out the ALT TAG and you will get a No Text backlink anchor.

You can get these anchors from most Web 2.0 sites like WordPress.com and Blogspot.com.

Authors Name:

Nicki

www.website.com:

That’s it. Just apply this lot to your website and you are set to rank high.

You now have an anchor text profile like the top ranking sites.

To find the long tail anchors that the top ranking site in your niche is using you can head on over to ahrefs.com.

The video below explains how you can use ahrefs to discover the perfect anchor text ratio for your niche:

I hope that you noticed that a whopping 11 sites out of the 14 listed above have a 0% exact match anchor text ratio.

One of these sites has a low domain authority of just 14. So their high rank with 0% exact match anchors is most definitely not down to having a high DA.

I have set the exact match anchor text ratio at 8%, however it can be as low as you want it to be. As long as your content is good, big G will know what it is about.

Your main focus should be to get contextual backlinks, the long tail anchors should be surrounded by related content to your focus keyword on your money site.

If you want to go with a very low exatch match anchor text ratio you can replace them with generic words like “site” and “go here” in the round 1 to 10 anchor text profile list.

I like to throw in complete random long tail anchor texts, use a sentence from your money site content. You can replace exact match anchors with complete random long tail anchors and generic anchors to lower exact match to 0% or 1% if you want to.

I can’t stress this enough, this is a loose guide, there is no perfect anchor text ratio when you build the backlinks yourself.

Use this as a guide, index the backlinks slow and steady and you are sure to hit the top spot.

To play it safe you can build backlinks without any exact anchors at all. Do this for the first 20 backlinks. Then check your rank. If you are happy with how it is going continue down the same road without exact match anchors.

If you think your rank should be a little higher than what it is, then drop an exact match anchor backlink in there.

Always monitor your progess and keep a record of your backlinks in a spread sheet, including anchor text information.

This way you can go back and change anchors if you need, that’s the beauty of building backlinks yourself.

If you are working on a lot of sites/pages at the same time, my advise is to build 10 quality backlinks per month to each page/post.

By quality, I mean content around 1000 words in legth, with images, video and linking out to other authority sites in your niche (not your competitors).

I should also mention that the average number of words that these top ranking sites have for their content length is 2198 words. Aim to have around 2000 words of content on your money site and you are good to rank.

The average keyword density for these top ranking site is 0.31%. A keyword density below 1% will see you good to rank.

Where To Place Your Backlinks

It is also important to know where to place your backlinks within a post.

Brand: You can place a brand anchor anywhere on the page. Remember to place most of them above the fold, remember to mix up your placement to make it look natural. These anchors are most effective in the first paragraph of a post.

TITLE TAG: These look more natural at the bottom of a post. Most people put these kind of backlinks in the “Resources” section, which will be after your content. Do the same and it looks most natural.

FULL Open URL: These can be used anywhere, but look more natural in the resources section at the bottom of the post. Mix this one up a bit.

Exact Match: I always use these in the first paragraph of the post. The closer to the top of the page the better.

I know this sounds obvious, but I will say it anyway, it is best to save your most powerful blogs for your exact match anchors.

If you are using expired Web 2s or even a PBN for your backlink strategy you will save the blogs with the highest page authority and most backlinks for your exact match anchors.

website.com: Can be used anywhere, make sure you mix it up to look natural.

Long Tail Random: Again can be used anywhere.

Part Match: Use these anchors anywhere within your content.

Generic: Use these anchors anywhere within the content. They have the most effect at the top of the page.

Long Tail Exact: Use these anywhere, mostly in the upper fold.

LSI Keyword Synonyms: Again these can be used anywhere within the content, make sure you mix them up to make it look natural.

No Text: These are image backlinks. Try to get the image at the top of the post most of the time. Be sure to mix them up and use different images.

Authors Name: Will be from a blog comment. You can drop a few in post “Authors Name” anchors if you want to, however most of these anchors will be from blog comments.

www.website.com: You can use these anywhere, they look more natural in the resources section at the bottom of a post.

I am having a lot of success with this strategy at the moment and you can too. Give it a go and let me know how you get on either in the forum or by leaving a comment below 🙂