Anchor Text
Anchor text is the clickable text in a hyperlink. It signals to both search engines and users what the linked page is about, so descriptive wording communicates the destination far better than vague phrases like "click here".
- Anchor text is the clickable text shown in a hyperlink, acting as a context signal that tells search engines and users what the destination page is about.
- Google recommends avoiding vague phrases such as "click here" or "read more" and instead using anchor text that is descriptive yet concise.
- Common types include exact match, partial match, branded, generic, naked URL, and image alt, each carrying a different kind of signal.
- Over-optimizing by repeating exact-match keywords across every link was a target of Google's Penguin algorithm (2012), so a natural, varied distribution is safer.
- For image links, Google treats the alt attribute as the anchor text, which is why writing descriptive alternative text matters.
Overview
Anchor text is the part of an HTML hyperlink that a user actually sees and clicks. In <a href="/seo-guide">SEO Basics Guide</a>, for example, "SEO Basics Guide" is the anchor text. It is more than a clickable region: it works as a context signal that tells both search engines and visitors what topic the linked page covers.
Ahrefs defines anchor text as the "clickable text of an HTML hyperlink," explaining that this text "provides search engines with additional context about the linked page or resource, which can influence overall rankings." Even before crawling a page, Google can use the anchor text and URL alone to get a sense of what that page is about. That makes anchor text a key unit of information within a site's link structure.
Main Types
In SEO practice, anchor text is classified by the nature of the signal it carries. Each type plays a distinct role within a healthy, natural link profile.
| Type | Description | Example (target: an SEO guide page) |
|---|---|---|
| Exact match | Uses the exact keyword the destination page targets | SEO guide |
| Partial match | Includes the target keyword in a varied or expanded form | See our SEO guide for beginners |
| Branded | Uses the brand or company name directly | SearchOS |
| Generic | A vague phrase unrelated to the destination | click here, read more |
| Naked URL | Exposes the address itself as the text | https://searchos.io/seo-guide |
| Image alt | The alt attribute of an image link serves as the anchor | (img alt="SEO guide cover") |
Best Practices
Google Search Central states that anchor text should be "relevant to both the page you're linking from and the page you're linking to," as well as "descriptive" and "reasonably concise." Specific recommendations include the following.
- Make it descriptive. Google explicitly flags phrases like "click here," "read more," and "website" as too vague. Aim for anchor text that, read on its own, hints at what the destination page is about.
- Keep it concise. Limit it to a few words or a short phrase rather than a full sentence or paragraph.
- Don't stuff in keywords. Google treats attempts to cram in every related keyword as keyword stuffing, which violates its spam policies.
- Add descriptive alt text to image links. Google uses the alt attribute as the anchor text for image links.
- Blend it naturally into the copy. Place links within their surrounding context rather than stacking them artificially.
Over-Optimization Risk and Evidence
Exact-match anchor text does correlate with rankings, but the correlation is not decisive. Ahrefs' analysis reported a "relatively weak correlation between the ratio of exact-match anchor links and rankings," and found that top-ranking pages tended to use a lower share of exact-match anchors, relying instead on a natural and varied link profile.
Google's Penguin algorithm, launched in April 2012, targeted over-optimized anchor text profiles. Sites where exact-match, keyword-heavy anchors made up an abnormally high share became candidates for algorithmic penalties. Ahrefs likewise warns that repeating the same exact-match phrase across every link can lead Google to view it as over-optimization and ignore those links, causing them to lose the value they would otherwise pass.
For this reason, a profile in which branded anchors make up a large share of external backlinks (often 40-60% of the total) is treated as a natural signal, because it reflects people genuinely mentioning the brand rather than artificial link building. Limiting exact-match anchors to a small minority and mixing in partial-match, generic, and naked-URL anchors is the recommended distribution. That said, anchor text distribution strategy is a topic of its own; here we focus on the concept and types of anchor text rather than on anchor text diversity as a tactic.
Markup Examples
<!-- Descriptive anchor text (recommended) -->
<a href="/seo/anchor-text">How to optimize anchor text</a>
<!-- Vague anchor text (avoid) -->
For details, <a href="/seo/anchor-text">click here</a>.
<!-- Image link: alt serves as the anchor text -->
<a href="/seo/anchor-text">
<img src="/cover.png" alt="Anchor text guide cover">
</a>