Anchor Text: The Most Precise Relevance Signal
Anchor text is the clickable text of a link. It is the only signal in which one page describes, in its own words, what a different page is about – making it the most precise relevance signal on the web. That is exactly why it was abused for years, and exactly why the line between optimisation and over-optimisation is so thin here.
1. What is anchor text?
In HTML, the anchor text is everything between the opening and closing <a> tag:
<a href="/en/wiki/crawl-budget">guide to crawl budget</a>
└───── target ──────┘ └─── anchor text ───┘Search engines use it two ways: they attribute the description to the target page, and they infer from it how others talk about that page. The second point is the more important one – the description comes from outside and is therefore harder to manipulate than any self-declaration in your title tag.
A historical footnote: the effect was strong enough to build "Google bombs" – pages ranked for terms that never appeared on them, purely because many links labelled them that way. Google defused this algorithmically in 2007, but the underlying principle remains: anchor text describes the target.
2. The six types of anchor text
| Type | Example | Relevance signal | Risk on external links |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exact match | "optimise crawl budget" | Very strong | High when clustered |
| Partial match | "guide to crawl budget" | Strong | Low |
| Brand | "Rank-O-Saur" | Medium | None |
| Brand + keyword | "Rank-O-Saur crawl budget guide" | Strong | None |
| Generic | "here", "learn more", "this page" | None | None |
| Naked URL | https://rankosaur.com/en/wiki/ |
Weak | None |
A seventh case is the linked image. There is no text there, so the alt
attribute takes on the role of anchor text – see section 7.
3. Why anchor text carries so much weight
Three properties make the signal robust:
- It is a third-party statement. Anything you write about your own page is self-promotion. What others write about it is evidence.
- It is explicit. Unlike signals Google has to infer from prose, the attribution here is unambiguous: this text describes this URL.
- It is cumulative. A thousand links with similar descriptions add up to a very consistent picture.
That is why a page can rank for terms that never appear on it – and why anchor text on internal links is the most effective way to tell Google which topic a page owns.
4. A healthy distribution on external links
An organically grown link profile has a characteristic pattern: most anchor text is boring. People link using the brand name, the URL, or "here".
| Type | Typical organic share | Warning sign above |
|---|---|---|
| Brand and brand + keyword | 40–60 % | – |
| Generic and naked URL | 20–35 % | – |
| Partial match | 10–25 % | over 40 % |
| Exact match | 1–5 % | over 10 % |
These figures are practitioner benchmarks, not Google thresholds. Google publishes no limits. Use them diagnostically: a profile with 60 % exact-match anchors is visibly built, regardless of where the algorithmic line actually sits.
Also worth noting: you only partly control external anchor text. Where you do control it – in guest posts or press copy – is precisely where over-optimisation originates. The practical rule: where you choose the anchor yourself, pick the less conspicuous option.
5. Internal anchor text: different rules
Internally, almost the opposite applies, and this is the most commonly overlooked part of the topic:
- Descriptive is mandatory. Internal links are your own statement about your own structure. "Click here" throws the signal away entirely.
- Consistency is desirable. If 30 articles link to the same page with the anchor "crawl budget", that is not a spam pattern but a clear assignment of ownership.
- One term, one target. Do not point the same anchor text at two different pages – that is the blueprint for keyword cannibalisation.
- No keyword stacks. "cheap red women's shoes buy discount" is a spam signal internally too.
- Natural within the sentence. The anchor should be part of a readable sentence, not a term wedged in.
<!-- Good: descriptive, in the sentence flow, unambiguous target -->
How to find wasted fetches is covered in the
<a href="/en/wiki/crawl-budget">guide to crawl budget</a>.
<!-- Bad: generic, signal wasted -->
You can read more about crawl budget
<a href="/en/wiki/crawl-budget">here</a>.
<!-- Bad: keyword stack -->
<a href="/en/wiki/crawl-budget">crawl budget optimise crawl budget
Google improve crawl budget</a>6. Surrounding text and link context
Anchor text does not stand alone. Search engines also evaluate what surrounds the link – described in the research literature as anchor context. In practice that means:
- The sentence counts. A link with the anchor "here" inside a sentence about crawl budget is not worthless, just weaker.
- The heading counts. A link beneath an
<h2>on the matching topic inherits context from your heading structure. - Proximity beats repetition. A link in the first third of a text, surrounded by topically relevant content, outperforms three links in the footer.
That yields a useful working rule: if style forces you to keep the anchor generic, make sure the sentence around the link names the topic clearly.
7. Images as links
With linked images there is no text for Google to read. The alt attribute then takes over the
function of anchor text:
<!-- alt text describes the link target, not just the image -->
<a href="/en/wiki/core-web-vitals">
<img src="/images/cwv-diagram.webp"
alt="Core Web Vitals: LCP, INP and CLS at a glance"
width="640" height="360">
</a>
<!-- Mistake: empty alt on a linked image -->
<a href="/en/wiki/core-web-vitals">
<img src="/images/cwv-diagram.webp" alt="">
</a>An empty alt is correct for purely decorative images – on a linked image it is a
mistake, because then neither search engines nor screen readers can name the destination. Details in the
image SEO guide.
If a link contains both text and an image, Google uses the text; the alt is then
supplementary.
8. Spotting over-optimisation
Five patterns that together give away a built profile:
- One anchor dominates. If a single exact-match anchor exceeds 10 % of all external anchors, that stands out.
- Too little brand. A profile with no brand anchors did not grow organically – real people use the name.
- Identical anchors across many domains. Twenty domains using precisely the same word sequence shared a template.
- Anchor does not match the page. Commercial-intent anchors on an informational article suggest a purchased placement.
- Clustering in time. Thirty similar anchors within one week.
For context: the usual response is devaluation of the links involved, not a penalty against the site. You notice it because purchased links produce no effect whatsoever. A manual action would be visible in Search Console.
9. Common mistakes
- "Click here" on important internal links. The single most common mistake and the easiest to fix.
- The same anchor pointing at different targets. Creates cannibalisation between your own pages.
- Anchor equals title tag equals H1. Looks machine-generated. Variation is more natural and covers more phrasings.
- Whole sentences as anchors. Dilutes the signal; three to six words is a good range.
- Empty
alton linked images. See section 7. - Automated keyword linking. Plugins that link every occurrence of a term produce hundreds of identical anchors and unreadable copy.
- Anchors translated literally for other languages. Use the terms people actually search in the target market – see language & hreflang.
10. Analysing anchor text
- External: backlink tools offer anchor text reports. Group by the six types from section 2 and compute the percentage split.
- Internal: your own crawl gives you every internal link with its anchor. Two analyses pay off: identical anchors pointing at different targets, and important pages whose inbound anchors are mostly generic.
- Search Console: the Links report lists the most frequent external anchor texts under "Top linking text" – real Google data, if truncated.
- Spot checks in the browser: faster than any export for individual pages.
11. Checklist
- Identify internal links with generic anchors on important pages.
- Replace generic anchors with descriptive ones (three to six words).
- Check whether one anchor points at several targets – and resolve it.
- Define one primary internal anchor per target page.
- Check linked images for empty
alt. - Group external anchors by type and compute the distribution.
- Determine the exact-match share; investigate above 10 %.
- Determine the brand anchor share; investigate below 30 %.
- Check automated linking plugins for anchor repetition.
- Where you control a placement, choose the less conspicuous anchor.
- Check anchors in other language versions against real local search terms.
Pro tip: Rank-O-Saur lists every link on a page with its anchor text and rel attributes.
That finds "click here" links and empty alt attributes on linked images in seconds –
without a crawl export.
12. Frequently asked questions
How long should anchor text be?
Three to six words is a good range. A single word often carries too little context, a whole sentence dilutes the signal. What matters most is that the anchor fits naturally into the sentence.
Is exact-match anchor text dangerous?
Not internally, where it is actually useful. On external links, clustering becomes a problem: if a single exact-match anchor exceeds roughly 10 per cent of the external profile, that is a conspicuous pattern. No official threshold exists.
What happens with anchor text over-optimisation?
Usually the links involved get devalued rather than the site penalised. You notice because built links produce no effect. A manual action for unnatural links would be visible in Search Console.
Can I always use the same anchor internally?
Yes, as long as it points at the same target page. Consistent internal anchors are a clear assignment of ownership, not a spam pattern. The reverse is the problem: the same anchor pointing at different targets.
What is the anchor text of a linked image?
The alt attribute takes on that role. Describe the link destination in it, not just the image content. An empty alt is right for decorative images but a mistake on a linked image – for screen readers too.
With two links to the same target, do both anchors count?
Probably mainly the first one. This is a frequently observed behaviour that Google has never officially confirmed. Usable as a working assumption: put the meaningful anchor first.
Should I translate anchor text for other languages?
Not literally. Use the terms people actually search in the target market. A literal translation often misses the established industry term and wastes the relevance signal.
Does anchor text affect accessibility?
Yes, considerably. Screen readers can output a page's links as a list. A list of twenty entries all reading "here" is useless. Descriptive anchor text is therefore both an SEO and an accessibility measure.
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