Anchor Text: What Actually Works
The clickable words of a link, which tell people and search engines what the linked page is about.
Samir Haddad
What is at stake
Descriptive anchor text improves both usability and search engines' understanding of pages, while over-optimized anchors in external links are a spam signal.
The playbook
- Write internal link text that describes the destination
- Vary wording naturally across the site
- Avoid generic anchors such as click here
- Keep anchors concise
- Review top anchor text in Search Console
Where it goes wrong
Avoid:
- Exact-match keyword anchors on every link
- Long anchors covering whole sentences
- Image links without alt text
- Requesting specific keyword anchors from other sites
The numbers behind it
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Google guidance | anchor text should be descriptive, reasonably concise and relevant to the target page |
| Internal links | the most controllable source of descriptive anchor text |
| Accessibility | link text should make its purpose clear |
| Over-optimization | large numbers of exact-match keyword anchors are a common link scheme pattern |
Getting outside help
When to hand it over: Bring in help when internal linking needs restructuring, or when external anchor text looks manipulated.
Where this comes from
- Google Search Central — SEO link best practices
- W3C Web Accessibility Initiative — Understanding SC 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context)
The figures and practices above come from the sources listed.
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