How to Maximize the Power of Links With Annotation Text and In-Text SEO

There are few search engine optimization elements more complex than links. While it’s common knowledge that strong internal linking structures, anchor text, and high-quality backlinks are vital to strong SEO, many content writers tend to gloss over annotation text which can be a long-lasting and costly mistake. In fact, annotation text for SEO may be the key to better use of anchor text.

As an SEO writer, you’re likely 90% of the way there. This resource will walk you through how to write quality annotation in-text SEO that helps pack every possible ounce of link juice into your internal, external, and backlinks. Let’s dive right into it!

What Is SEO Annotation Text?

Annotation text is the text that surrounds an outbound link that a web crawler can use to better understand the linked page. It’s highly likely that web crawlers will index text beyond the sentence level in relation to a hyperlink. This suggests annotation text can include words and phrases that span the section, paragraph, or even entire document where the hyperlink appears.

Most importantly, Google’s algorithm patent actually suggests SEO annotations are a key ranking factor when it comes to information retrieval.

Diving Into Google’s Web Crawler System and New Annotation Description Patent

Annotation text is the SEO element gleaned from Bill Slawski’s research into an update of Google’s algorithm patent. Bill Slawski analyzed Google’s anchor text patent and realized there was an interesting discrepancy in how Google described their anchor text indexing. First, the patent describes that their anchor text indexing system will store at least one term in association with the outbound link.

However, the patent goes on to explain that the annotation includes a text passage that is a predetermined distance of an outbound link. Bill Slawski also noticed that Google added geo-semantic indexing for text surrounding the anchor text. This means that the text within a certain distance of the anchor text is indexed to better understand the meaning of the linked web page.

In Google’s Words

The updated Google algorithm patent states the following:

“…identifying, in the source document, annotation text, the annotation text being text within a predetermined distance of an outbound link to a target document and the annotation text including at least one term, storing in the index an association between the term and the source document, storing in the index, responsive to identifying the annotation text, an association between the term and the target document, identifying, responsive to receiving a query that includes the term, the source document and the target document as associated with the term in the index, responsive to identifying the associations, including the source document and the target document in a list of documents responsive to the query, and returning the list of documents responsive to the query as a search result for the query.”

The passage above describes the relationship between annotations, keywords, and their proximity to outbound links and the content found within those linked web pages.

How Does Annotation Text Affect Search Engine Optimization?

Google’s NLP algorithms use artificial intelligence to better understand human language. This provides Google with a better understanding of any given web page’s content. As Google’s bots crawl a page, they index these NLP signals in order to provide searchers with better search results.

While anchor text is a primary indicator of the content on the linked page, Google’s NLP algorithms also index information from the surrounding in-text SEO as a secondary indicator.

By including surrounding text in Google bot indexing, Google is able to provide the best user experience because the surrounding text provides insight into the relevance of the outbound link. The better Google understands the linked page, the more precise its search results can be.

Improving Your Website’s SEO

Providing Google’s web crawlers with more information about a web page is always a better approach to trying to rank for target keywords, especially when it comes to off-site syndication and guest posts.

Furthermore, because most SEO content creators are solely focused on optimizing anchor text, you can gain a competitive advantage by optimizing for annotation text in addition to your anchor tag SEO.

TLDR: Annotation text is what gives your outbound links contextual meaning.

How Strongly Does Annotation Text Affect the Meaning of a Link?

This is where things get a little sticky. As we know, Google keeps all of the signals used for PageRank’s indexing a secret.

“But there’s a patent…”

Well, just because Google registered a patent that describes annotation text doesn’t necessarily guarantee that PageRank uses this particular patent. It’s likely that Google does, especially since this patent was registered around the time they were developing their SMITH algorithm. However, it is something to note that Google has never confirmed it.

The Structure of Annotation Text

The word annotation means notes or in-text notation. So, when Google describes the process of pulling annotations through indexing, their crawler is likely pulling hints as to the link meaning from within the in-text SEO. This, like taking notes on a literary piece, has an amorphous structure.

When it comes to the relationship between anchor text and annotation text, I often liken this to an atom. The anchor text is the dense center: the nucleus. The annotation text is the electrons circling this center. Both the center and the surrounding text define the atom, however, the anchor text is the most reliable in terms of its relationship to meaning since the electrons can be more difficult to pin down the electrons.

This often means there is no perfect version of a page. The web crawler system will pull data from a “predetermined distance of an anchor tag.” So, common sense says to make sure the most important words are near your anchor text but also maintain the quality of your content throughout the page.

What Is Anchor Text?

Unsure of what anchor text is? It’s a simple concept. Anchor text is the text that is presented within a webpage and when clicked, directs the browser to navigate to a URL. Most often, the text is a description or explanation of the information found on the linked webpage.

For example, “an update of Google’s algorithm patent” in the previous section is the anchor text that links to the referenced patent in the Patent Database.

Google’s web crawlers use anchor text to determine the topic of the page to which the link is pointing. This information is gathered as the bot works its way through a sitemap.

Is Annotation Text the Same as an Annotation Link?

No. While annotation links or annotated links have many meanings in the world of web development, this phrase is not interchangeable with annotated text.

Annotation links can be hyperlinks that allow video viewers to skip ahead to the section of the video that’s most relevant to their needs. Some people use “hyperlink annotation” as a synonym for “anchor link” when a photo, video, or audio file stands in place of text.

Techniques for the Best SEO Annotation Text

So, how can you make the most of annotation text for improved SEO and link juice? Most SEO content optimization software like Yoast SEO will ensure you have the foundations of keyword basics. However, these tools won’t ensure you’ve optimized your anchor text or surrounding text. But with some attention to the in-text SEO surrounding your links, you can turn a basic paragraph into a text machine that fully optimizes your link building strategy.

1. Use focus terms near your links on-page and off-site.

Annotation text gives you the opportunity to refine how Google Search understands a webpage. To make the most of your internal links, use SEO annotations throughout your website whenever you internally link to another one of your pages.

Additionally, when you’re implementing an off-site backlinking campaign, pay careful attention to what you include in the surrounding text.

2. Identify the most relevant focus terms to include.

Like developing the best quality web content, you want to determine the best focus terms to use. To do this, you will want to perform keyword research using SEO software.

For this article, we used Search Atlas’s SEO Content Assistant. Use higher-importance words in the text near your anchor text for the biggest impact. When selecting the most important terms, consider the topical relevance of the focus term in relation to the linked page. Even if a focus term is your most important term, don’t include it if it’s not topically related to the linked page.

3. Incorporate your focus terms naturally.

It likely won’t come as a surprise to you that the Google search engine has an aversion to keyword stuffing and duplicate content. This continues to ring true when it comes to the best-quality annotation text. While you want to include focus terms, you must be strategic about it and prioritize readability.

Consider including the most impactful focus terms in your annotation text naturally. These are often the most semantically related to your anchor text. But don’t force any keywords if it doesn’t make sense contextually.

4. Develop the surrounding paragraph.

To make the most of annotation text, you have to consider where the anchor link falls within a piece of web content. Furthermore, you should also develop the content surrounding the anchor link.

In order to do so, avoid:

• Placing your backlink or most important internal link at the tail end of a section
• Using a backlink or high-value internal link in a thin section
• Linking to your website in a bullet point in an off-site article
• Using a high-value link in a chart or table

Annotation Text = Better SEO

When it comes to the best content and the best links, annotation text provides context to your readers about your link. And Google Search likely uses your annotation in-text SEO in addition to anchor text to better understand the web page you’re linking. This results in a better experience for your readers and more depth for Google’s algorithms to parse on the internet.

When you optimize your off-site outbound links’ anchor text and annotation, you have a better chance of ranking high on the search engine results pages.

Begin finding the best keywords and Focus Terms with LinkGraph’s free Keyword Research Tool or sign up for Search Atlas for full access to all your focus terms.