Anchor text

Anchor text explained

Anchor text is the visible, clickable text of a link. "Our boiler servicing prices" is anchor text. So is "click here", although that one tells nobody anything. Search engines use anchor text as a clue to what the linked page is about. Google's link best practices recommend descriptive, concise anchors.

How it affects trust

On your own site, descriptive anchor text helps visitors and screen reader users know where a link goes, and helps search engines understand your pages. Links from other sites will use whatever text the writer chooses, and that's how it should be. Trying to control it usually looks unnatural.

Risky habits

• Using generic text such as "read more" for every link.
• Using the exact same keyword-rich anchor on every internal link to a page.
• Asking other sites to link with specific keyword anchors, which can look manipulative.
• Writing anchors that don't match what's on the linked page.

A realistic example

A dentist's blog post says "find out more here" with a link to the implants page. He changes it to "how dental implants work at our practice". The link now makes sense out of context and is more useful to everyone.

How to review yours

Crawl your own site with a free crawling tool, or simply skim your main pages, and list the link text you use for internal links. Replace vague phrases such as "click here" and "learn more" with words that describe the destination. For external links, the Links report in Search Console shows the most common anchor text other sites use.

Related link terms

• Internal linking: Links between pages on the same site that help users and distribute crawl paths.
• Backlink: A link from another website to yours; a classic off-page signal.
• Anchor text mix: The mix of branded, naked and keyword anchors in a link profile.