Content within an <a> tag, most often text or an image.
For SEO, it is important to have descriptive anchor content. Non-descriptive text like "Read more.." should be avoided where possible, unless it in semantic context, such as within an <article> tag.
Anchor text is typically styled differently than body text, as an example, we use a different colour and bolder font, along with an underline.
Styling can be applied with CSS using pseudo-classes, the most common used are:
- a:hover for mouse-over effects
- a:visited for links that have already been visited
- a:active when a click or tap is held
- a:focus is not specific to a tags, but can be used to help keyboard navigation
Example:
<a href="https://northrook.com">This is anchor content</a>Note: When using an image within an a tag, if the visitor is using a screen reader, or if for any reason the image cannot be loaded, the alt text will be used. Search crawlers like Googlebot will also use the alt text.