The Difference between Link Anchor Text and Link to Name Anchor

The title of the post sounds daunting enough! Let us simplify. In SEO parlance, you use two kinds of terms to denote anchor texts. For those who are still confused about what we are talking about here, let’s start with explaining which ones are anchor texts. These are words or phrases on the web page that are hyperlinked to lead to some other internal or external web page. It is potent SEO tool used in websites to lead to internal web pages and on external articles and blog posts that lead to the parent website.

Now, anchor texts can be of two types: link anchor text and link to name anchor texts. There is a very subtle difference between the two and that is why many end up confusing them up. When we are referring to link anchor text, we are talking about words or phrases that are used in the organic way of writing and then hyperlinked to another web page. For example, if we write the sentence: You can go there and link ‘go there’ to an external web page, it is called link anchor text.

However, if we list the various sub-divisions of a service on the right or left hand side of the webpage with each of them hyperlinked to respective individual web pages, it is called link to name anchor texts. For example, if your service has 5 features and those are listed below the word Services on the right panel of your website, with each of these 5 features hyperlinked to lead to 5 different web pages, you are using link to name anchor texts.

Other than this thematic difference between the two, there is also some difference in how Google perceives your anchor texts. As already mentioned, Google attaches a lot of SEO value to link anchor texts because they are organic and used naturally in the course of writing. As for the link to name anchors, they are used to segment information on your web page and then direct the users accordingly. Both are useful from their points of view.