Anchor Text

Written by Miriam Ellis, edited by Jo Cameron, graphics by Meghan Pahinui, updated November 8, 2024

Anchor text is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink. In modern browsers, it is often blue and underlined, such as this link to the Moz homepage. In code, anchor text looks like this: < a href=”moz.com”>the Moz homepage< /a> where the anchor text is Moz homepage.

Anchor text gives context to the relationship between your page and the content you’re linking to. As anchor text is the words that make up a link, it’s often discussed in relation to internal linking and backlink strategies.

The wording and placement of anchor text can influence human behavior and are considered important elements in your overall SEO strategy. However, as it was heavily gamed by SEOs and site owners in the past, it’s important to consider SEO best practices. This includes understanding the role of actual anchor text compared to other link types, such as alt text for images and naked URLs, as search engines may also analyze surrounding link text to infer context when actual anchor text is lacking.

To human visitors to your site anchor text is the blue underlined, clickable text that displays a URL when hovered over. The visible text, whether it be a word or phrase, links to another resource, whether that’s another page on or off the website, another area of the same page, or a tool, widget, action, form, or other asset. 

When viewing the code of a webpage you can identify links by the distinctive a href element.

<a href="https://www.hedghogs.com">hedghogs</a>

SEO-friendly anchor text is succinct and relevant to the target page (i.e., the page it’s linking to,) not overly keyword heavy, and not generic (for example “click here.”) Understanding the target keyword for a page is crucial for effective anchor text strategies, as it helps in using exact or partial matches without over-relying on keyword-rich anchor text.

Anchor text has two main roles in the world of SEO and online content:

1. To signify to human visitors what they can expect to find if they click through on anchor text. Because of this, anchor text should concisely and accurately describe what will be found on the other side of every link so that there are no unwelcome surprises and no intent to manipulate people.
2. To signify context and relevance to search engine crawlers (also known as bots and spiders) so that these programs can assess whether anchor text accurately describes link destination content or is being used manipulatively. This counts for internal links within your website, backlinks from your website to third-party sources, and inbound links pointing to your site from third-party sources.

Optimizing anchor text for both internal and external links is crucial. Proper use of anchor text enhances SEO performance and user experience by providing context and relevance to the linked content. Additionally, external links can impact the SEO rankings of the linked pages, as search engines interpret these links as endorsements.

Anchor text is the visible characters and words that hyperlinks display when linking to another document or location on the web. It usually appears as blue underlined text, but you change your website’s link colors and styles through your HTML or CSS.

Search engines use external anchor text (text other pages use to link to your site) as a reflection of how other people view your page — and by extension, what your pages may be about. While website owners typically can’t control how other sites link to theirs, you can make sure that the anchor text you use within your own site is useful, descriptive, and relevant.

If many sites think that a particular page is relevant for a given set of terms, that page can manage to rank well even if the terms don’t appear in the text itself.

Google’s John Mueller has confirmed that anchor text is a ranking signal and an element that Google uses to evaluate link spam.

The basic concept of anchor text within the SEO framework is this: the more links with specifically worded anchor text that point to a website or web page, the better its chances of ranking well in search engine results for that phrase. For example, if multiple pages on your own website site all link to a particular page on your site, this can help confer authority to that page, and whatever phrases you use as the link anchor text can help the page rank for those terms.

Because anchor text can influence which terms an organization ranks for, it is tempting to build links with keyword-stuffed anchor text or identical anchor text across every piece of content that links to a given page.

In the above two examples, you can see that both the internal and inbound links pointing to the hedgehog resource have diverse anchor text. That’s a good thing. Because widespread manipulation of this element has caused search engines like Google to roll out updates like Penguin, which penalize these behaviors. Engaging in any type of link spam can leave a site vulnerable to a manual penalty from Google or cause it to lose rankings if the behavior becomes the subject of a large algorithmic update.

To know your options for optimizing anchor text and avoid degrading your online presence with anchor text spam, it helps to know that there are at least eight common types of anchor text:

Branded

A brand name is used as anchor text. For example: 'Hedgehogs' linking to a site called Hedgehogs.com. In many cases the majority of anchor text pointing to your site will be branded. This is a natural and expected landscape of a backlink profile.

Brand + Keyword

A brand plus additional keywords make up the anchor text. For example, ‘Hedgehog.com's article on hedgehog houses' is the anchor text.

Exact-match

Anchor text is considered "exact match" if it includes a keyword that mirrors the page that is being linked to. For example: “garden hedgehogs” linking to a page about garden hedgehogs.

Partial-match

Anchor text that includes a variation of the keyword on the linked-to page is known as 'partial match anchor text'. This linking strategy involves using a variation of the target keyword along with additional contextual words, creating a more natural and descriptive link. For example: ‘garden hedgehog FAQs‘ linking to a page about hedgehogs. This approach enhances relevance and can potentially improve search rankings.

Related Keywords

A keyword used in the anchor text has a semantic relationship to a similar term. For example, anchor text reading ‘hedgehog shelters‘ could be related to a page about hedgehog houses.

Naked link

A URL is used as the anchor, as in ‘hedgehog.com' being used to link to hedgehog.com.

Generic

A generic word or phrase that is used as the anchor. ‘Click here' is a common generic anchor.

Images

Whenever an image is linked, Google uses the text in the image's alt attribute as the anchor text.

A natural-looking overall anchor text profile will be likely to contain a mix of some or all of the above types. Things become less natural-looking when all or nearly all of the anchor text pointing to an asset is of a single type.

Internal anchor text links from web pages within a domain. If you own and run a website, you can interlink between pages using whatever anchor text you would like to use. External anchor text links from web pages from one domain to another. Most often, you can’t control external anchor text, and if you do, make sure you’re not involved in a link scheme and be mindful of the fallout from the Penguin Google Algorithm update.

To better understand your site's current SEO performance, understand the anchor text being used to link to it.

Using Moz's Link Explorer you can enter any site (yours or a competitor's) and in the click of a button begin to analyze the phrases most commonly used as anchor text to link to that site, subdomain, or exact page.

Optimizing anchor text has a history of being over-optimized and gamed, so it's important to learn from what SEOs have done before us to avoid any pitfalls. Thankfully you still have two options for making the most of the opportunities offered by anchor text within the SEO and marketing context:

1. Because you can almost always control the anchor text used in the internal links of your site, you can make sure that part of your SEO workflow is to ensure that the links you point to your own assets feature phrases for which you're hoping to rank well in search. You can also carefully deliberate which phrases and combinations of words are most likely to inspire human visitors to click through on your links. For example, you might determine that a link that reads “book your Mendocino vacation home today” is more attractive to people than a link that simply reads “click here”.
2. Additionally, when you earn inbound links from third parties, you will sometimes be asked how you would like your assets to be linked to. For example, if someone at your company is interviewed by a blogger, that blogger might ask both what page your organization would like to be linked to and what wording should be used. There are also instances in which you may be able to reach out to third parties and ask that they update the anchor text they are already using to link to you or phrase a new link in a certain way.

While you should always endeavor to avoid spammy anchor text behaviors, they can inspire your campaigns to consider your optimization options next.

As mentioned, well-written anchor text works for human users and search engines. Well-written anchor text, that satisfies both these requirements, should be:

1. Succinct
2. Relevant to the linked-to page
3. Low keyword density (not overly keyword-heavy)
4. Not generic

Keep in mind that you often don't have any control over the anchor text that other sites use to link back to your own content. So, most of these best practices will govern how to best use anchor text within your own website.

1. Succinct anchor text

While there isn't a specific length limit for anchor text, it's a good idea to keep your link text as succinct as possible. At the end of the day, though, the terms you choose to include in your anchor text should take two main factors into consideration:

• What is the most concise, accurate way to describe the linked-to page?
• What word or phrase would encourage users to click on a link?

2. Target page relevance

As search engines have matured, they have started identifying more metrics for determining rankings. One metric that stands out among the rest is link relevancy, or how related the topic of page A is to page B if one links to the other. A highly relevant link can improve the likelihood of both page A and page B ranking for queries related to their topic.

Link relevancy is a natural phenomenon that occurs when people link out to other content on the web. It is determined by:

• The topic of the source page
• The content of anchor text on that source page

Links that point to content related to the topic of the source page are likely to send stronger relevance signals than links pointing to unrelated content. For instance, a page about the best lattes in Seattle is likely to pass a better relevance signal to Google when it links to a coffee shop's website than it is when it links to a site with pictures of baby animals.

Search engines pay attention to the different anchor text variations being used to link back to the original article and use them as additional indicators of what that article is about - and for which search queries it might be relevant. This, in combination with natural language processing and other factors like link source and information hierarchy, make up the lion's share of link relevancy indicators online. To ensure your links send strong relevancy signals, keep your anchor text as descriptive of the target page as possible.

3. Anchor text keyword density

With the Penguin algorithm update, Google began to look more closely at keywords in anchor text. If too many of a site's inbound links contain the exact same anchor text, it can start to appear suspicious and may be a sign that the links weren't acquired naturally. In general, it's still a best practice to obtain and use keyword- and topic-specific anchor text when possible. However, SEOs may get better results by striving for a variety of more natural anchor text phrases rather than the same keyword each time.

Along those lines, one important note: Don't overdo it with keyword-heavy internal links. Internal linking is certainly a recommended best practice, but be careful with the anchor text you use to link your own pages together. If too many links to a page all use the same anchor text, even if they're on your own site, Google might sense spammy behavior

4. Non-generic anchor text

Consider anchor text a signpost to where the link is taking people. Generic anchor text, like "click here," tells people what action to take but doesn't explain where they are going, what they will experience when they get there, or how it relates to the content they are reading.

“URLs with a larger number of anchor text variations from internal links are highly correlated with more Google search traffic.” - Cyrus Shepard; 23 Million Internal Links - SEO Case Study

The excellent, large-scale study quoted above demonstrates that there is a strong correlation between welcoming anchor text variety rather than pursuing exact-match anchor text spam. If more traffic results from a looser approach to how you write the anchor text of your own internal links, most organizations will prefer to enjoy such benefits instead of over-optimizing their assets. This same less-controlled and less-contrived spirit can be felt throughout this list of SEO best practices surrounding anchor text:

• Do keep your anchor text succinct. While there is no character limit on anchor text length, try to describe what you’re linking to in the fewest and most helpful words.

• Be sure your anchor text is relevant to the page you are linking to. Misguiding your visitors doesn’t inspire trust.

• Do think of your important keyword phrases, but don’t stuff your anchor text with a string of keywords or useless superlatives. You may encounter the phrase rich anchor text and that simply means anchor text that has been optimized in a moderate way with keywords that have value to a site owner and its audience, but that isn’t over-optimized or “stuffed”.

• Do be creative. A generic “click here” may be okay from time to time, but chances are good that a little more effort at being descriptive will inspire more clicks from visitors.

• Do be diverse. As stated above, linking to an asset on your site with a variety of compelling anchor texts is a more natural approach to letting both human visitors and bots know what they’ll find if they visit the linked-to resource.

Anchor text spam typically consists of:

• Earning a large number of links with anchor text that exactly matches a keyword phrase a website is trying to rank for.
• Anchor text that is “stuffed” with excessive keywords, like “best cheapest most amazing hottest hedgehog website in the world”.
• Earning a large number of links with anchor text that is irrelevant to the topic of the page being linked to. For example, the link anchor text reads “hedgehogs” but points to a page selling diet pills.

In a Google SEO Office Hours session in early 2023, a representative stated:

“In general, yes, we don’t trust links from sites we know are spam. This helps us maintain the quality of our anchor signals.”

This indicates that Google wants to keep the anchor text signal in their algorithm functional by ignoring links that come from sites known to engage in web spam. In the above image, we see an example of anchor text spam, in which multiple sites are pointing to a web page with the exact same anchor text that the page is trying to rank for. To some extent, this phenomenon can result in a natural manner, but if Google detects a widespread pattern of this practice, it may decide that the linking sites are engaging in spam and that the linked-to site could be, too.

Any of these practices can be a red flag to Google and, at best, could result in Google ignoring the links and their anchor text or, at worst, penalizing a site for spamming. Intentionally engaging in this type of manipulation is a waste of time and a bad business decision because it will not build trust with Google or your audience.

All website owners, webmasters, SEOs, and marketers should familiarize themselves with the Spam Policies for Google Web Search document to avoid unwanted outcomes.

How do you optimize an anchor text?

The simplest way to optimize anchor text for SEO is simply to make sure the anchor text uses descriptive keywords to accurately describe the page or idea you're linking to. But be careful! In SEO, it's easy to "over-optimize" your anchor text by over-relying on repetitive, keyword-rich phrases. In the real world, people don't always link with the "perfect" anchor text, and it's often best to mimic this practice in your own linking.

What is rich anchor text?

Rich anchor text simply means anchor text containing desirable, target keywords. These are often keywords you'd like to rank for. Again, don't overdo your rich anchor text as this isn't how people normally or naturally link, and could lead to Google seeing your content as "over-optimized."

Does anchor text matter?

Anchor text matters greatly to SEO, as it can indicate to Google what a page is about. In fact, using anchor text as a ranking signal is included in several Google patents. Not using descriptive anchor text or using generic anchor text, such as "click here," is generally considered a poor SEO practice.

There are several common anchor text mistakes that can negatively impact a website’s search engine rankings and user experience. Here are some of the most common mistakes to avoid:

1. Keyword stuffing: Using the same keyword or phrase repeatedly in anchor text can be seen as manipulative and may lead to penalties.
2. Generic anchor text: Using generic anchor text such as “click here” or “learn more” does not provide any context or value to users or search engines.
3. Over-optimization: Using exact match anchor text repeatedly can be seen as over-optimization and may lead to penalties.
4. Irrelevant anchor text: Using anchor text that is not relevant to the linked page can confuse users and search engines.
5. Duplicate anchor text: Using the same anchor text repeatedly on the same page or across multiple pages can be seen as manipulative and may lead to penalties.

• The Beginner's Guide to Link Building - Everything you need to get started on one of the most important things you can do for your SEO.
• Backlink Basics - Moz Academy
• Internal links
• External links
• Backlinks
• What is off-site SEO?
• The Beginner's Guide to Link Building
• Learn how to use anchor text in Link Explorer
• Webmaster Guidelines - Google's Official Guidelines for Webmasters.

Anchor text is a crucial element of a website’s internal and external linking strategy. It provides context and value to users and search engines, and helps to improve the user experience and search engine rankings. By understanding the different types of anchor text, best practices, and common mistakes, website owners and marketers can optimize their anchor text to improve their online presence and drive more traffic to their website.

Remember, anchor text should be natural, relevant, and descriptive, and should provide value to users and search engines. By following best practices and avoiding common mistakes, website owners and marketers can optimize their anchor text to improve their online presence and drive more traffic to their website.