Analyzing the Anchor Text Strategy for the Keyword 'cheap hotels'

Hello again, Unancorlovers. It's been a long time since we updated the blog because time is limited, and we have to set aside some things, although important, more "dispensable".

Today we bring you another interesting post about SEO, but this time we are not going to write it ourselves, as we can be quite tedious, but it is brought to us by the great Joel Pérez, an SEO who has been around for a long time.

We hope you like it, and feel free to leave any comments, as he will surely respond with pleasure 😉

And pay attention everyone because May is coming very loaded.....

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Hello everyone, my name is Joel Pérez, CEO and founder of the SEO Marketing Agency Barcelona, and before starting the article, I would like to thank Xavier Cabot for giving me a spot on the Unancor blog to try to provide an analysis of link building strategies being carried out in the hotel niche.

Link building is something very complex, and for this reason, I want to clarify that this article is based on my opinion and I do not intend to have the absolute truth. We can cordially debate any aspect of the article in the comments, and I'm sure we will reach a middle ground; SEO is not exact, and as I always say, "every master has his own book."

Despite its complexity, over the years we have learned quite a bit about the optimization and over-optimization of anchor text when conducting a link building or web popularity campaign. A long time ago, I created a guide on anchor text on my blog that is still relevant today, and you can start with this concept.

Without further ado, let's proceed to analyze the strategy of the top 5 results that appear for the search 'cheap hotels'.

We will analyze the anchor text strategy that the 5 sites achieving the best position for the keyword 'cheap hotels' are following.

In the top position, we find a subdomain of Carrefour (viajes.carrefour.es/hoteles/). We will proceed to analyze this subdomain of the Carrefour brand and its anchor strategy to achieve good positions for the keyword 'cheap hotels'.

In the second position, we find an EMD domain, a domain with the exact keyword and also a '.com' domain (hotelesbaratos.com). An interesting domain to analyze as it contains the keyword itself within the domain.

In the third position, we find a highly authoritative domain like Atrápalo (atrapalo.com/hoteles/). Who hasn't visited this website at least once? One of the most used meta search engines with significant branding in Spain.

In the fourth position, we find another authoritative domain in the travel niche (jetcost.es/hoteles/), Jetcost is another meta search engine competing in major keywords in the travel sector.

In the fifth position, we find Logitravel, another domain with significant authority in the travel sector (logitravel.com/hoteles/), you have surely seen a television campaign from this brand at some point.

Did you notice something curious in the introduction to these 5 results? For now, we can detect a pattern in the URL syntax, both Carrefour Travel and Atrápalo, Jetcost, and Logitravel are using a 'hotels' folder in the syntax of their URLs, except for the EMD domain (hotelesbaratos.com) which is ranking with the homepage for this keyword.

Carrefour Travel

As mentioned earlier, the domain carrefour.es is working the keyword 'cheap hotels' through the subdomain 'viajes.carrefour.es' and the landing '/hoteles'. Carrefour is a French supermarket chain that is well established in the Spanish market as a leader in the food sector.

Is it surprising to see Carrefour at the top for a keyword in the travel niche? Honestly, yes, it is surprising to find a subdomain of Carrefour.es occupying the first position for such a competitive keyword in the travel niche.

We have analyzed their content vertical for hotels and their landing page with which they are ranking in the first position and found a history of 58 referring domains and 50 domains that are currently still pointing to this URL. Often we will find false positives, it is better to review all domains one by one and you will see how many of those links are still alive.

This can help us get a general view of the link building work of the landing page or the vertical /hotels/ of the Carrefour subdomain. However, let's analyze the anchor strategy they are following to achieve these results.

A 37% of the referring domains are linking to this landing page or vertical with the keyword 'hotels', 25% of the domains are linking with the exact keyword 'cheap hotels' and 11% are linking to this landing page or vertical with the keyword 'hotels in Madrid'.

In the image of the CTLD distribution map, we can see that the majority of the referring domains come from Spain.

If we analyze the entire subdomain, we will see that these anchoring data are not representative, and we could have a broader view of the authority and popularity strategy that Carrefour Travel is developing.

In this image, we can see how branding, URL links, and image links (<a>no text</a>) dominate and we find a small pattern of anchors in the keyword 'cheap flights' with 37 referring domains pointing to the Carrefour Travel subdomain.

I found it interesting to investigate their current position for the keyword 'cheap flights' and I was able to confirm that they are in the TOP 2.

The results and screenshots may change; these screenshots were taken during April 2019. Let's analyze the next domains and their link building strategy.

Cheap Hotels (EMD – hotelesbaratos.com)

It is fun and curious to find a domain with the exact word for this type of keywords; however, in the SEO environment, we find many completely different opinions when it comes to assessing the importance of the exact keyword in the domain.

Years ago (1998-2000), the value of a domain with an exact keyword was much higher than what we could offer today (from an SEO perspective, and this is my opinion).

Is it a coincidence to find an EMD in the TOP 5? It is not a coincidence; the success of finding a domain ranking for that keyword makes it clear that there is a team of people working on that project and competing against large companies.

Analyzing with Ahrefs, we found a history of 625 referring domains (553 currently active).

If we analyze the anchor profile, in this case, we can find a distribution that is completely different from the previously analyzed one. In this analysis, we can find that 21% of the domains point with the exact keyword 'cheap hotels'; however, this would fall within a natural pattern if we understand the concept of cheap hotels as a brand (see Carrefour or Carrefour Travel), as it is an EMD domain, the keyword itself would be considered a branded keyword.

It is complex and difficult to work with; we could easily fall into over-optimization, and having an EMD could become a double-edged sword.

Regarding the distribution of CTLDs, we can find a slightly more diversified distribution than the previous example and more countries of origin.

Atrápalo

You have surely visited the Atrápalo website at some point, a meta search engine where you can find everything: travel, leisure, hotels, tickets… Personally, I have bought many flights and hotels through this website. And no, I am not being paid to say this, I promise; however, it is a reference website that like Carrefour Travel and Logitravel has worked better on its branding and its brand keyword has over 582,000 monthly searches.

This figure is truly astonishing and is the result of branding, UX, and much more that have helped consolidate the brand 'Atrápalo' as a leader in the market niche for flights and hotels.

Additionally, we have also been able to verify through Ahrefs that branded keywords like 'atrapalo flights' have over 15,000 searches per month.

Without a doubt, one of the big players in the flights and hotels niche. And this is confirmed by Ahrefs, the vertical /hotels/ has over 1.1M of organic traffic (according to Ahrefs). So far, the largest website in terms of its organic reach compared to the previously mentioned competitors.

Let's analyze their anchor strategy and the distribution of the referring domains they are achieving.

In this content vertical, we can see a pattern that is much less aggressive than the previously mentioned ones; barely 1% of the links that this content vertical receives contain the keyword 'hotels', and the vast majority of the links this content vertical is receiving are branded, URL, or image links.

A point in favor of the work done by Atrápalo is that they could try to abuse the exact keyword a bit more in their anchors and try to continue climbing positions from the top 3. Having a link profile that appears to be much more natural than its other competitors.

The distribution of the CTLDs mostly comes from Spain, but it has a fairly varied profile due to the large number of referring domains.

Jetcost

Jetcost is a price comparison platform or meta search engine for hotels and flights at the best price. Notably, this website shares the same URL syntax as Carrefour Travel with the '/hoteles/' in the URL.

We analyze that the historical referring domains of this Jetcost landing page has 112 referring domains, 97 of which are currently active.

The anchor text distribution is the most aggressive regarding exact keywords, with 51% of the referring domains pointing with the exact keyword. Barely 7% of their referring domains point with URL anchor text, and we have not been able to find any branded or brand anchor text for this specific landing page.

Part of the success of this domain could be attributed to its large number of referring domains and the accumulated popularity. For now, their strategy is working perfectly, and they are competing with large portals in the 'flights' or 'cheap flights' niche.

In this image, we can see that they have over 81,000 monthly branding searches in Spain. It is a fairly large brand that is competing with major sites like Vueling, eDreams, Ryanair...

In this image, we can observe the top 10 competitors of Jetcost.es in Spain according to Ahrefs data.

Logitravel

During the preparation of this article, I have noticed that the result for Logitravel has disappeared and Kayak has appeared; we are in April 2019, and there is a constant shuffle of positions in many keywords.

By the time you read this article, the top 5 results may have changed; we are in the middle of a Google Algo Core Update (02/12/19), and the SERPs are very unstable.

We can see how a brand like Logitravel, which has a monthly search volume in Spain of 471,000 searches for its own brand, is experiencing position fluctuations.

With this, I want to send a message of calm and patience to all SEOs and webmasters who work on building projects. If a large brand is seeing fluctuations in positions for powerful keywords like 'cheap hotels', we as smaller players could suffer many more fluctuations as we do not have projects as consolidated as the brand 'Logitravel'.

Despite this, we will analyze Logitravel's profile briefly to draw a small conclusion about the link building and anchoring work they have done.

Through Ahrefs data, we found 142 referring domains, and currently, 125 referring domains are functioning properly. Now we will proceed to analyze the anchor strategy they are following for this content vertical.

Their anchor profile in this content vertical is quite diversified; we find 15% of the referring domains as branded with the keyword 'logitravel' and 11% of the links through images <a>no text</a>.

However, on a smaller scale, we are starting to see exact keyword anchors like hotels, hotels Madrid, cheap hotels, hotels Barcelona... However, each keyword represents 3-4% of the total referring domains, and we could fit it within a 'natural' anchoring strategy.

What conclusion can we draw from this anchor analysis?

Through the entire pattern of anchors we have observed in almost all the previously studied domains, we can conclude that links with exact keywords continue to work. Do not take it the wrong way; at no time have links with exact keywords stopped working.

However, we must tread carefully when developing a proper link building strategy for our projects or for our clients' projects.

Personally, the "cleanest" strategy that corresponds to my way of working is undoubtedly the link building strategy that Atrápalo is implementing. This does not mean that the other websites are doing a bad job, far from it; we must congratulate each and every one of the sites that are at the top for that keyword.

The links <a>no text</a> refer to links that come through images or advertising banners on other domains. We can also see how all the branding or URL anchors pointing to this content cluster follow a natural pattern.

In my view, the anchor strategy being followed by Logitravel or Jetcost is much more aggressive and could backfire in future updates.

How can Unancor help us in our link building strategy?

Very simply, we have analyzed a large number of referring domains in these five sites and have found that several portals were receiving links from Estrella Digital, El Día, Madrid Diario, Público, La Voz de Galicia... among many others; all of these sites we can find within the Unancor platform and use to our advantage to develop a link building campaign for our website or that of our clients.

And that's all; I would like you to leave your opinion in the comments and contribute any different point of view from mine. Finally, congratulations to these 5 mentioned portals for their work and the results they have achieved.