Anchor text is the clickable words in a link. It tells Google what the destination page is about, in someone else’s words, which is exactly why it carries weight and exactly why it gets abused.
Why it works
A link is a vote. The anchor text is the label on the vote. When many pages link to a page using similar language, that language becomes strongly associated with the destination.
Google trusts anchor text partly because it’s hard to dictate. When other people describe your page in their own words and broadly agree, that agreement is meaningful. When 400 links all use the identical commercial phrase, the agreement is manufactured and detectable.
Internal anchors are the version you control
External anchor text is mostly out of your hands, which is the point. Internal anchor text is entirely yours, and most sites waste it.
Cyrus Shepard’s testing at Zyppy found pages with an exact-match internal anchor pointing at them ranked measurably better than those without. Treat it as a signal worth acting on rather than a law, given the method and sample, but the direction is clear enough to change how you link.
The types, and what each is for
| Type | Example | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Exact match | crawl budget | Sparingly, and internally where it’s earned |
| Partial match | guide to crawl budget | The workhorse: natural and descriptive |
| Branded | Masters of SEO | Natural in citations and mentions |
| Naked URL | mastersofseo.com/learn/ | Common in forums and references |
| Generic | click here, read more | Avoid: a wasted signal and poor accessibility |
| Image | alt text acts as the anchor | Write the alt text properly and it works |
How to write them
- Describe the destination in the words a reader would use. “Guide to crawl budget” beats both “click here” and the same exact phrase repeated 40 times.
- Let variety happen naturally. If you write links into sentences rather than pasting them in, variation takes care of itself.
- Link where a reader would want to go next. Google’s own guidance says much the same, and it conveniently produces the pattern that looks natural, because it is.
- Mind accessibility. Screen reader users navigate by pulling a list of links out of context. “Read more” repeated 30 times is useless to them and to Google for the same reason.
Common mistakes
- Over-optimising internal anchors. Using one exact-match phrase sitewide looks manufactured because it is. Vary it.
- Generic anchors. “Click here” wastes the strongest on-page description you get to write about another page.
- Anchor text that doesn’t match the destination. Confuses readers and Google equally, and increases pogo-sticking.
- Buying links with commercial anchors. The pattern is exactly what SpamBrain is built to neutralise, so the usual outcome is paying for nothing.
- Ignoring image links. Missing alt text on a linked image throws away the anchor entirely.
Related
Internal linking for the full method. PageRank for what a link passes. Off-page SEO for earning external links without the footprint.