Anchor Text
The visible clickable text of a hyperlink that provides context to search engines about the linked page's content.
Also known as: Link Text, Link Anchor
Category: Concepts
Tags: seo, links, html, content, search-engines
Explanation
Anchor text is the visible, clickable words in a hyperlink. Search engines use it as a signal to understand what the linked page is about. When many pages link to a page using similar anchor text, it strongly influences what that page ranks for.
Types of anchor text:
- **Exact match**: Uses the target keyword exactly (e.g., "link building" linking to a link building guide)
- **Partial match**: Contains the keyword with additional words (e.g., "best link building strategies")
- **Branded**: Uses the brand name (e.g., "Moz")
- **Naked URL**: The raw URL as anchor text (e.g., "https://example.com")
- **Generic**: Non-descriptive text (e.g., "click here", "read more")
- **Image anchor**: When an image is linked, the alt text serves as anchor text
SEO implications:
- Anchor text is one of the strongest relevance signals for search engines
- Over-optimized anchor text (too many exact-match links) can trigger penalties
- A natural anchor text profile contains a diverse mix of all types
- Internal link anchor text is fully within your control and should be descriptive
- External anchor text distribution should appear natural and varied
Best practices:
- Write descriptive anchor text that tells users and search engines what to expect
- Vary anchor text across links pointing to the same page
- Avoid generic anchors like "click here" when possible
- Use exact-match anchors sparingly for external links
- Be more liberal with keyword-rich anchors for internal links
- Ensure anchor text accurately represents the linked content
Google's original PageRank paper specifically identified anchor text as a valuable signal because it represents what other people say about a page, not what the page says about itself. This makes anchor text manipulation a key focus of both SEO strategy and search engine spam detection.
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