Copywriting with Effective Anchor Text, Text Passages and Annotation

Bill Slawski of SEO by the Sea recently posted a blog (Google Patent on Anchor Text and Different Crawling Rates) that looked at some of the inner workings of Google’s most recently approved patent (filed in 2003). 

Bill points out, and I agree, that since the patent application is nearly 5 years old, some of the elements may not be relevant today, but I suspect most of them still are, especially those pertaining to content categorization and logging.

While Bill’s analysis takes an in-depth look at the overall patent, I wanted to drill down a little bit on a specific section of Bill’s analysis, the portion concerning anchor tags. My aim is to help copywriters and content developers to better understand how the positioning of specific content blocks and text can help with Web site optimization.

To better understand how Google handles anchor text we need to look at anchor text annotations and text passages.

Anchor Tag (Anchor Text)

For the purpose of this document, the anchor text is the actual hyperlinked text in a document.

For example:

WeWriteIt, Ink. is a firm specializing in content development services for small to medium-sized business.

In the above sentence, the anchor text would be the hyperlinked “content development” keyword phrase.

Text Passage

For simplicity’s sake, we’ll define a text passage as the block of text that surrounds the anchor tag.

For example:

If you are looking for copywriting, editing and other content-related services, maybe we can help. Our firm, WeWriteIt, Ink. specializes in content development for small to medium-sized business. Consider our services if you are looking for informational articles, industry news, blogs or article distribution.

This entire block of text might be considered a text passage.

Please note that because Google (naturally) keeps some of its proprietary algorithm secret, we’re not really sure how many words before and after the anchor text would be considered a text passage. I’m guessing that, at a minimum, Google will be looking at the sentence before and the sentence after the actual hyperlinked text to help it build its Link Log (read Bill’s analysis for more on this).

By looking at all of the text around a particular hyperlink, Google may make broad associations with “content development” and other keywords or phrases it identifies, such as copywriting, editing and blogs. Therefore, it would be beneficial for the landing page either to make mention of these keyword phrases (or derivatives of the phrases) within the landing page’s content, or to have related links to information about each of the keyword phrases.

Anchor Annotations

An annotation can be defined as a piece (or multiple pieces) of data that provides information about the anchor text. The Text Passage described above could be considered an annotation, because it provides additional information about the anchor text being hyperlinked.

Just like humans, the search engine algorithms try to build associations. So, the anchor text “content development” from the example above, is further associated with other words and phrases in the text passage such as “copywriting,” “articles,” “industry news” and the like.

Other annotations that Google (and probably other search engines) will be looking at are things like italicized text, bolded words, underlined words and citations. I would venture a guess that subheadings (like H2, H3 and H4 tags) also come into play.

One other aspect of annotations that Google may be looking at is the number of anchor texts within a text passage.

We’ll take the same example from above, but we’ll hyperlink some additional anchors:

If you are looking for copywriting, editing and other content related services, maybe we can help. Our firm, WeWriteIt, Ink. specializes in content development services for small to medium sized business. Consider our services if you are looking for informational articles, industry news, blogs or article distribution services.

While it’s not exactly clear how Google will handle each of the anchors within this text passage, one can assume that it will use all of them, creating an associative model of some kind to determine the page relevancy of the target pages.

In the example with the single anchor text, Google may make broad associations with the other keyword phrases it identifies in the text passage. In this example, the multiple anchor texts and different landing pages may assist Google in identifying specific landing pages for each topic, making them much more relevant for the keyword phrases, as opposed to the broader match we saw in the earlier example.

Again, this is all theoretical, as we have little substantial algorithm information to go by. These speculations do make sense from a human standpoint, however. Since search engine algorithms are designed to mimic human thought and behavior patterns, in order to deliver results for human users, it stands to reason that they would process contextual annotations much like we would.

Developing Content with Annotations in Mind

It’s a well-known fact that gaining backlinks from relevant resources will boost your Web site’s overall page strength and relevancy. If you’re offering mental health services, for example, a link from a Web site in the auto industry may increase your page strength a little bit, but for real relevancy the link would be better positioned on a Web site that provides informational content about different mental health conditions or therapies.

Utilizing annotations within your copy applies to every aspect of content development, whether it is content developed strictly for your own Web site, or content created for external promotion, off of your Web site. Therefore, it is important to keep annotations in mind for all of your writing.

There are a variety of content strategies you can use to build page strength and relevancy at the same time, including article distribution and submission, sponsored articles, blog reviews, press releases and content exchanges with other Webmasters.

If your optimization strategy includes any of these elements, then understanding the benefits of anchor text annotation can provide that relevancy boost your Web site needs to achieve good SERP positioning.

Here are some tips to follow when developing content for external submission (most of which can also be applied to content on your own Web site):

• Make sure to follow standard Internet content creation guidelines that include proper META, H1, H2 and P tags. This is the only language search crawlers understand, so make sure that you communicate with them properly.
• Write just like your English teacher instructed you in sixth grade. (Thanks Ms. Garza!) It’s always good to have an introductory paragraph that touches on all of the keyword phrases that will be used throughout the rest of the document. Utilize appropriate keywords in your subheadings, and be sure to follow up with content that utilizes related keywords underneath each subheading. Conclude your document and be sure to include some, or even all, of the keywords and phrases used in the introductory paragraph.
• Keep in mind that Google (and other search engines) are going to be looking not only at your anchor text, but also at the text around your anchor text to calculate relevancy and make associations.
• Utilize italicized or bolded text to emphasize certain aspects of your article that are important. Don’t just do this for search engines. Do it for your readers. Along these lines, don’t overuse the italics or bold tags. If it’s annoying in the eyes of a human, the same is probably true for the search engines. So use these types of annotations sparingly.
• External submission content is more effective when submitted to relevant resources. For example, if you are submitting an informational article about flex-fuel vehicles to an external Web site, you’ll get more bang for your buck if you publish it on a related resource than if you place it on a Web site about search engine optimization.

Conclusion

When developing content, always keep the human reader in mind.  Search engines like Google utilize algorithms that crawl and score data just like a human reader will. Just like humans, search engines respond to page titles and subheadings, as well as linked text within documents. And just like humans, search engines follow those links to their subsequent landing pages. When they reach those landing pages, just like humans, they want to find information relevant to what they expected when they clicked the link.

While empirical evidence has always suggested that targeting content and anchor texts adds value to a Web site, the analysis of the Google patent offers some valuable insights into how the algorithm actually processes and categorizes the information. Understanding the different techniques at play can help Webmasters and marketers to better target their content to give end users the experience they’re looking for. And when the human users are happy, the search engines are sure to follow.

Thanks for reading.

Sincerely,

Mark Holy
WeWriteIt, Ink.
http://www.wewriteit.com/

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