Can I use location names in my anchor text?
Generally, no – we can't include regional identifiers such as city or county names within your anchor text, as this tends to cause more harm than good for your link building campaign.
Why we avoid regional identifiers in anchor text
- It doesn't look natural. Bloggers have no real reason to mention your location if they're not from your area themselves, so it can disrupt the natural flow of the content.
- It's a common penalty footprint. In our experience, almost every link penalty we've seen has involved geo-located words within anchor text, so using location-based anchors increases the risk of tripping a Google filter.
- Google doesn't need it. Google already understands where your business is based from your contact information, business directories and your Google local listing (if you have one fully optimised). While anchor text used to help Google understand what a page was about, today it can work this out from your page content instead.
We do guarantee UK or US placements if that's where your business is based, but we're unable to be any more location-specific than this within your anchor text.
What happens if you include one anyway
If you place an order and include an anchor text with a regional identifier, we may need to tweak it to remove the geo reference so it reads naturally within the content. If this happens on your order, we'll let you know, and you're welcome to suggest an alternative anchor text within 24 hours.
For more guidance on choosing effective, natural anchor text for your blogger outreach or link building orders, take a look at our anchor text guide, where we review two of the biggest websites on the internet and break down their most-used anchor texts.
Still have questions? Chat with our support team or email support@fatjoe.com.