The best anchor text for links to homepage

[analis]

All pages of a site must be linked to the home page; What is the best text anchor for google and for users?

The most used are:

Home (wordpress)
Home page
icon
link to the logo image

[analis]

Google Trend, Pagespeed Insight use Home page
Google My Business, Google developers use Home

[martinibuster]

I believe that what's best for users is best for Google.
Google's rendering web pages to view the site the a user does. So if it works for users then it should work fine for Google.

Have you tried their Lighthouse 3.0 site audit app? It can give an idea of this.

[analis]

I'm talking about anchor text

[martinibuster]

So am I.

[lucy24]

"Home" and icon aren't mutually exclusive. You can have text under an icon, or a graphic with alt text. It's more important to have it where the user expects it: currently the top left corner. (If you live in a RTL language region, is this kind of thing reversed? Maybe, maybe not.)

[keyplyr]

Don't use "home" That doesn't help you at all.

Use your company or website name.

[martinibuster]

I want to apologize in advance if you think I'm being Mansplainy on you. I'm not. I assure you that the following that I wrote was written to help you and in the spirit of helpfulness. :)

Use your company or website name.

If a user can't figure out that a company name is the HOME link then Google won't figure that out.

Google doesn't care about your home link and Google doesn't give extra points for anchor text in your home link. Just name it HOME because that's what users are expecting. And because users are expecting that then Google's algorithm will be expecting that.

You know that Google downloads your CSS and JS files, right? That's because it's rendering your site as a user.

You know why they're looking at your site like a user, right? Because they are evaluating the User Experience and predicting whether it's the right site for a particular search query. Predicting.

Google evaluates websites as a user.

I am not being Kumbaya and Content is King. I am pragmatic. Pragmatic means you look at things the way they are, not the way you think they should be, and do what has to be done.

When I say do it for the User I am saying it because that's the way to rank better. That means, doing it in a way that works for the user, because that's what the algorithm is looking for,it's going to help you.

Follow the algorithm, not your preconceptions.

If users expect the User Interface (UI) to be labeled HOME in order to return to the index page, then label it Home. That's what users are expecting and that's what Google's algorithm is expecting. ;)

The best anchor text for links to homepage

The days of hammering anchor text and watching ranks rise are over.
Anchor text from within a site are the least trustworthy signal of all the signals. Even the black hat spammers have noticed and they're linking from their PBN's with their brand name now.

That memo went out several years ago.

[keyplyr]

Well my comments were not about Google. My focus is always about the user. I believe that what's best for users is best for Google.

I've seen too many Site Links with Home telling the user absolutely nothing about that link. IMO naming a link Home is a poor choice that offers the user no information whatsoever.

The days of Home are over. Users expect more nowadays.

[fix typo]

[edited by: keyplyr at 6:17 am (utc) on May 26, 2018]

[martinibuster]

The days of Home are over. Users expect more nowadays.

That is an interesting observation.

I don't (at this time) agree with it. But I am 100% eager to understand if you are on to something that I don't know about. Thanks for sharing that insight. :)

Do users expect more than just a link labeled HOME these days? I really want to know! :)

[lucy24]

If I found a link with the full name of a company or site, I would be inclined to assume it's an external link, and would then become confused about where I am. If you’re already in Cleveland, you don’t expect to see signs pointing to “Downtown Cleveland”. They’d just say Downtown.

[analis]

I replaced Home page with Home, the first seems to me a little human, then I think many do not know what it means. (in italy)

The doubt remains Home page has a precise meaning, Home is also house.

[lucy24]

Home is also house

Unless you're a hardware store that includes a building department, there is not likely to be any confusion.

[robzilla]

I think it's been a long time since I've clicked on a "Home" link. It makes more sense to me to click the logo, and that works on most sites, but I'm not sure it's obvious to all users. In breadcrumbs I usually use the site name rather than "Home". Still, I would say "Home" remains a safe choice because it's a standard (Don't Make Me Think), even though I find it rather ugly.

Here's what the usability experts have to say on this:

4. Include actual links called Home.
To minimize homepage-navigation confusion, offer both clickable logos and actual Home links. These Home links can be presented in places such as the site’s global navigation or in breadcrumbs. Positioning them towards the top left of the page (above the content) makes them the most discoverable. Placing them too far from this area may cause users to miss them, especially if your site is visually busy.

Best Practices for Homepage Links [nngroup.com]

Should answer all your questions from a usability perspective, and as has been noted, that's also SEO these days.

[keyplyr]

As an aside comment: I think the inherent problem here is the site design where a "home page" even exists.

Why does there need to be a "home page?" Why not design all pages to be landing pages. Why not utilize the full potential of all pages, and not send users back to a "home page" but give them what they need right there, right where they are.

[lucy24]

Why does there need to be a "home page?"

Because people who request “example.com” have to end up somewhere, and that somewhere then has to branch outward to the rest of the site. Surely your house has a front door? You don't encourage people to hop in the nearest handy window.

Not long ago I looked up my personal site on the Wayback Machine, and was bemused to find that as recently as 2012 I really didn't have a front page. That is, there was content at the URL, but it clearly wasn't designed with the expectation that anyone would ever go there.

People do go to home pages, though. They want to know what the site is about, especially if they've never been there before and have no idea what its underlying intent, function or purpose is. You can see it in access logs when someone lands on an interior page, perhaps putters around a bit among other pages, and then eventually they strip away the rest of the path and manually request the front page (deducible from the lack of a referer in logs, even while other page requests had one).

[keyplyr]

My statement is rhetorical lucy24 and was presented as "an aside" so as to not promote topic drift.

Why does there need to be a "home page?"

Because people who request “example.com” have to end up somewhere

Well “example.com” doesn't have to be a Home page that you keep sending visitors to.

You can see it in access logs when someone lands on an interior page, perhaps putters around a bit among other pages, and then eventually they strip away the rest of the path and manually request the front page

Again, only if your site is set up that way... and keep telling the use to go Home.

Make each page unique and topic specific, giving the user what they came for.

[robzilla]

It's not about telling your users to do something, it's about giving them the option, and the ability to easily navigate to the home page (requiring one or more clear and prominent links) is one of the most important navigational elements you should have, simply because it's a thing users often want to do. Whether or not other pages are good landing pages is beside the point.

[keyplyr]

... giving them the option, and the ability to easily navigate to the home page

This is of value *only* if you use a traditional Home page.

My point is that is a mindset. It is not necessary, and IMO an archaic site model that interferes with more creative innovations. My latest site does not use a Home page... and my older sites do not label the index page as a Home page either.

Anyway, my bad for the topic drift. Maybe I'll start a new thread in New to Web Development [webmasterworld.com]

[lucy24]

My latest site does not use a Home page

There's always a home page, even if you choose to call it something else. And my point above was that people will look for it even if there are no obvious links to it.

[analis]

my menu is on the top right, is it better on the top left?

[QuaterPan]

1- I am not sure people really mind going to the frontpage of a site. (of course it depends of the kind of sites)
2- I feel like people are in use of having "something" (logo/text) on top left, that they assume will take them to the front page of a site.

[keyplyr]

There's always a home page, even if you choose to call it something else.

Yes, I'm aware you believe that and I agree most users are under that impression, however it simply is not true. There is not *always* a Home page. Again, my new site does not have an index page & and nothing is used as a Home page. Traffic is sent to various pages based on a set of criteria.

[lucy24]

Traffic is sent to various pages based on a set of criteria.

What criterion is used if they are already on some interior page and manually request example.com? I don't really care for the idea of a site that thinks it knows my mind better than I do. If I explicitly request the home page, it's because I've already seen some stuff, and now want to know what the overall site is about. And, frankly, I would be extremely annoyed if I requested example.com and found myself on example.com/pagename.html.

What if there’s a “cold” request, with nothing to indicate they've ever been there before? What do search engines get, and how do you avoid charges of “cloaking”?

[keyplyr]

I don't really care for the idea of a site that thinks it knows my mind better than I do

Then you probably wouldn't like my site. You are a victim of your beliefs.

how do you avoid charges of “cloaking”?

Cloaking is not by definition against SE rules. They do it themselves. Cloaking is only a no-no when you attempt to show SEs something different than you show users.

I do something similar to what a SE does with local search. I deliver content based on who, what, where & why... hopefully giving the user what they came for in a more intuitive manner than a normal site.

[robzilla]

an archaic site model that interferes with more creative innovations

I don't think it's archaic at all. Old, yes, a tradition, but not necessarily old-fashioned. Perhaps if you could explain how this works on your site, or what these creative innovations are, it would make more sense.

my menu is on the top right, is it better on the top left?

So long as it's noticeable and easy to use, you should be fine with either. Whatever works for your design.

[keyplyr]

Most put their (linked) logo in the upper-left so having you navigation menu in the upper-right would be logical.

[martinibuster]

Upper right seems to be the convention for mobile. Opinions?

[robzilla]

Upper right is definitely easier to reach with your thumb, assuming you're right-handed (although not everyone uses their dominant hand). Some sites do well with a menu at the bottom, where it's even easier to reach and you don't cover the screen while using it, assuming you don't use your phone upside-down, but elements that stick to the bottom of the screen on mobile can be considered a nuisance (especially when there's also space taken up at the top).

Consider this graphic [media.tumblr.com] from Do users interact with their mobile devices with their dominant hand? [realites-paralleles.com]

Essentially, anything in that far top corners can be considered relatively hard to reach.