28 August 2010
It would make sense to have the anchor text a different colour to the rest of the text to make it stand out. It may also help to underline the anchor text as the mouse hovers over the link.

Besides the appearance you should also look at the anchor text itself and make sure it is describes what is being linked to (ie. NOT "click here"). If a user knows what will happen or where they will be taken by clicking on a link they are far more likely to do so.

Hope this helps

Regards

Paul Reilly
P R Systems

28 August 2010
Hello Barkha,

I am James from Reddex Creative Design Studios. We specialise in creating innovative, new websites for our clients!

I think that you should make your anchor text stand out from the rest of the website, as the chances are, they are very important links on your site!

You should try adding different colours and fonts to these links and continue to do this until you feel that you have achieved what you were looking for in this anchor text. Think like you visitors, what would they want?

Don't put anchor text in CAPITALS as it puts people off clicking them. Make them look enticing and welcoming for them to click on them.

When you discuss a topic in your web page and mention a keyword that's covered on its own page, you should use an anchor text hyperlink to that page when you mention the word. Anchor text is a factor that can increase your Search Engine Ranking for keywords and is thought to be part of Google

28 August 2010
The suggestions above are good. It's also a smart idea to give each link a "title" tag with more information describing the link's destination, especially for those who may be using assistive technology to navigate. If their screen reader can give them additional information about what's at the end of the link it might be helpful for someone with limited vision etc. who might have difficulty with the link text alone.

31 August 2010
One useful technqiue if not over used can have great visual and informative benefits.

When your user hovers over the link text a floating box appears with info on the link.

You can see a variety of different effects here: http://jquery.bassistance.de/tooltip/demo/

31 August 2010
I agree with Magpie, having something descriptive hovering over the link does benefit the client.

Other than that, make sure they're in a different colour, and that they're descriptive. And try and link to your most important pages higher up the page.

31 August 2010
Remember - the anchor text helps to improve rankings for the page it is pointed to. So ensure appropriate keywords are used where possible.

1 September 2010
I think the below answers have covered the question. Although you can look at Wikipedia or Amazon they are sites to follow. Also always use keywords in your anchor text as this will help you search engine rankings.

Amazon have some links with underline and some underline when you hover.
Wikipedia only use underline when in hover state.

Thing to notice that they both use the underline in one way or another and they keep a consistent colour.

Hope this is of use

Justin Bridges

JB Creative Marketing

1 September 2010
That

16 September 2010
Hi Barkha

I think the two key elements here are to make sure the actual link not only contains a key phrase relevant to the subject in question, but also to style the link nicely to make it stand out and give the user the incentive to click on it.

Take a look at our homepage for a really good example.


Many thanks

Toby Gunston
Chimera Studios
http://www.chimera-studios.co.uk/

25 September 2010
I suggest using a variety of techniques in order to give a good contrast between the links and the site content. A different color for example.

In addition, make sure that your link text is context specific. For example: Do not use "click here" text. Set the link as the part of the sentence that promotes the action or target of that sentence.

14 October 2010
Hello Barkha,

Well you need to make some test before you finally get the results. Its all depend on your website structure and your audience behavior. You can underline the anchor text with different font color or may be bold it to stand out.

Thanks,
Naqi Khan

Advent Interactive Ltd

22 October 2010
Anchor text inks to more apparent in your website use buttons and labels and strong text or bold text fields in your website. they will be helpful to more apparent to the user for clicking.

26 November 2010
Hi Barkha,
you could also go one step further and use CSS to replace the html text with a larger graphical button or banner. Simply give the anchor tag a class then use CSS to indent the text by -9999px, set the size etc. and use the background property to insert your image. You can also give the link a hover state if you like.

This way you retain the benefit of the text link as far as search engines go, using keywords etc. and you can make the link as fancy and eye catching as you like :)

Daniel Hockey
West Coast Web Design

31 January 2011
A good should anchor text link should have your researched keywords and make them eye catching for all the visitors. for example if you are a web design company in New York, a good anchor text for your clients bottom right link would be instead of Design by "Company", you should have something like "New York Web Design - (Company Name)"

http://www.OnlineSEOStudios.com