Anchor Text

What Is Anchor Text?

If hundreds of websites link to a page with the same anchor text, that can actually lead to ranking losses — Google evaluates identical patterns as a manipulation attempt. The best strategy is therefore a natural mix of keywords, brand names, and generic text like “here” or “more info”. With internal linking, you have full control: use descriptive anchor texts instead of meaningless phrases to give both Google and your users clear orientation.

Anchor text is the clickable text of a hyperlink. When you see a link on a website such as “Learn more about SEO here,” the phrase “Learn more about SEO here” is the anchor text. For search engines, this text is a strong signal about what the target page is about. Google uses anchor texts from incoming links (backlinks) as one of the most important ranking factors — especially when many external websites link to the same target page with similar anchor text, this signals Google relevance for that topic.

The mechanism is elegant: instead of only crawling the URL, Google reads the anchor text and uses it as additional context. If hundreds of websites link to a page with the anchor text “best SEO tools,” this signals Google: “This page is probably relevant for ‘best SEO tools.’” This is one reason why anchor text diversity matters: too many identical anchor texts appear manipulative and can even lead to penalties. With your own internal linking, the same principle applies — anchor texts help Google understand site structure and topical relevance.

In practice, you should choose descriptive anchor texts for internal linking: instead of “click here,” use “SEO basics.” This helps not only Google, but also users to understand where the link leads. For link acquisition (backlinks), aim for naturally diversified anchor texts: a mix of exact keywords, brand names, generic anchors like “here,” and URL anchors. 100% identical anchor texts across many backlinks appear unnatural and can lead to ranking drops. A good anchor text strategy is therefore a balance between relevance (for Google) and naturalness (to avoid penalties).