Anchor text is the clickable text of a link. Good anchor text tells the reader, and Google, what the linked page is about. Google's own documentation sums it up: anchor text should be "descriptive, reasonably concise, and relevant to the page that it's on and to the page it links to" (Google Search Central, Link best practices).
In practice that means two different jobs. On your own site, you control every anchor, and descriptive internal anchors are one of the simplest SEO improvements available. On other sites, you mostly do not control the anchor, and trying to control it with keyword-rich text is what Google's link spam rules target.
This guide covers both: the rules from Google's documentation, the Penguin history that explains why over-optimised anchors are risky, what the available data says about anchor types, and a checklist for each kind of link.
What Google's documentation says about anchor text
Google's link best practices page is the primary source. Its rules, in short:
| Guideline | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
Links must be crawlable <a href> elements | Google can only follow links in standard HTML anchors with an href attribute |
| Anchor text should be descriptive | Name the destination. "Our guide to keyword difficulty" beats "this guide" |
| Keep it reasonably concise | Google calls an anchor that wraps a whole promotional sentence "weirdly long" |
| Test it out of context | Google suggests reading "only the anchor text (out of context)" to see if it makes sense by itself |
| Avoid generic anchors | "Click here", "read more", "website" and "article" are listed as bad examples |
| Don't stuff keywords | Google warns that "keyword stuffing is a violation of our spam policies" |
| Don't chain links together | Adjacent links are "harder for your readers to distinguish" |
| Image links need alt text | For a linked image, Google uses the alt attribute as the anchor text |
Google also says that "every page you care about should have a link from at least one other page on your site", and that there is "no magical ideal number of links a given page should contain."
Rel attributes on links
The same page covers when to qualify a link:
rel="sponsored"for paid or sponsored linksrel="ugc"for links users add, such as comments and forum postsrel="nofollow"when you do not want to associate your site with the target, or the other two do not fit
Google's guidance is to cite sources with normal links where you trust them. Nofollow on every external link is unnecessary.
Why over-optimised anchors are risky: a short Penguin history
Before 2012, a common tactic was to build many links with the exact keyword as anchor ("cheap car insurance") to push a page up. Google targeted that directly.
| Date | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| April 2012 | Google announces an algorithm change against webspam, later known as Penguin. Google said it affected about 3.1% of English queries "to a degree that a regular user might notice" | Google Search Central Blog, 2012 |
| September 2016 | Penguin becomes part of the core algorithm. It runs in real time, is more granular, and "devalues spam by adjusting ranking based on spam signals" | Google Search Central Blog, 2016 |
| Ongoing | Google's spam policies list link schemes, including "links with optimized anchor text in articles, guest posts, or press releases distributed on other sites" | Google spam policies |
The 2016 change matters. Since then, the usual effect of manipulative links is that Google ignores them, so the money spent on them is wasted. Sites with serious link scheme problems can still receive a manual action, which shows in Search Console's Manual actions report.
What the data says about anchor types
SEOs usually sort anchors into types:
| Type | Example for a page about dog food for puppies |
|---|---|
| Branded | "Acme Pet Foods" |
| Naked URL | "acmepet.com/puppy-food" |
| Exact match | "puppy food" |
| Partial or phrase match | "the best food for puppies" |
| Generic | "this page", "here" |
| Topical or descriptive | "Acme's guide to feeding a 10 week old puppy" |
| Image | alt text of a linked image |
The largest published study we found of anchors and rankings is Ahrefs' analysis of the top 20 results for 19,840 keywords, published in 2019 and updated in 2020 (Ahrefs, Anchor text study). It measured how the number of links using each anchor type correlated with ranking position:
| Anchor type | Spearman correlation with ranking (average) | Ahrefs' reading |
|---|---|---|
| Exact match | 0.1436 | Relatively weak |
| Phrase match | 0.1057 | Very weak |
| Partial match | 0.1076 | Very weak |
| Random (no keyword) | 0.0161 | Effectively none |
Two cautions. Correlation does not show cause: pages with more exact-match anchors may simply be the pages people naturally reference for that topic. And the study measured links that exist, which already reflect Google's filtering of spam.
A second test in the same study looked at the words around a link (the "surrounding text") for 16,000 pages with random anchors and found no meaningful correlation either way.
What this suggests: anchor text is a small signal among many, and the safest distribution is the one that happens naturally when people link to you without being told what to write. Most natural link profiles are dominated by brand names, URLs and descriptive phrases. If your profile is mostly exact-match keywords, that pattern is easy to spot.
For wider data on links, see our backlink statistics.
Best practices for internal link anchors
Internal links are fully in your control and carry no link scheme risk. Google uses them to discover pages and understand what each page is about.
- Describe the destination. "See our local SEO checklist" tells readers and Google exactly what they get.
- Use the words a searcher would use. If the page targets "emergency plumber", an anchor such as "emergency plumbing service" is natural and clear.
- Vary the wording. Five links to the same page can use five accurate phrasings. Identical anchors on every page read as automated.
- Put links where they help. A link in the paragraph that discusses the topic is more useful than a list of links at the bottom.
- Link from strong pages to important pages. Pages that already earn links and traffic are found and crawled often. Link from them to the pages you want to rank.
- Avoid one anchor pointing to two pages. If "pricing" links to two different pages across your site, Google gets mixed signals about which page is about pricing.
- Fix orphan pages. Every page you want indexed needs at least one internal link. A site crawler such as Screaming Frog or the crawl in our technical SEO audit checklist will list pages with no internal links.
- Keep navigation anchors short. Menu items like "Services" and "Contact" are fine. Body text is where descriptive anchors matter.
Internal anchor examples
| Weak | Better | Why |
|---|---|---|
| "Click here to learn about our services" | "See our roof repair services" | Names the page |
| "Read more" | "Read the full guide to choosing a CRM" | Makes sense on its own |
| "Best Dentist Austin Cheap Dentist Austin TX" | "our Austin dental clinic" | Natural, no stuffing |
| "this article, this page, and this post" | Three links spaced in separate sentences | Easier to tell apart |
Best practices for links from other sites
You rarely choose the anchor on another site, and Google's policies make clear you should not try to engineer it.
- Let authors choose the anchor. When you pitch a journalist or blogger, give them a reason to link. Leave the wording to them.
- Make your brand easy to link. Most natural links use your brand or URL. A clear brand name and memorable URLs make those anchors work.
- Avoid keyword anchors in guest posts and press releases. Google names this exact pattern in its link spam examples.
- Do not buy links that pass ranking credit. Paid links need
rel="sponsored"orrel="nofollow". - Check your profile occasionally. Look at your anchors report in Ahrefs, Semrush or Google Search Console's Links report. A cluster of exact-match anchors from sites you never contacted can come from spam, and Google will usually ignore them. Use the disavow tool only if you have a manual action or know of a paid or scheme link history.
- Ask for a fix when an anchor is wrong. If a site links with a misleading anchor or a broken URL, a polite correction request is fine.
Citations on directories and listings are a different case. For those, consistency of business name and URL matters more than anchor text. See citation building.
Anchor text in site migrations and mergers
When pages move, their anchors move with them only if the internal links are updated. After a redesign or domain change, crawl the site and update internal links to point straight at the new URLs, using the same descriptive anchors. Relying on redirects for internal links adds a hop on every click and is easy to forget later. Our guide to SEO in mergers and acquisitions covers the wider migration checklist.
An anchor text checklist
| Check | Done |
|---|---|
| No "click here" or "read more" anchors in body content | |
| Each important page has 3 or more internal links with descriptive anchors | |
| Anchors make sense read alone | |
| No keyword-stuffed anchors in menus or footers | |
| Linked images have descriptive alt text | |
Paid and sponsored links carry rel="sponsored" | |
| No exact-match anchors requested in guest posts or press releases | |
| No orphan pages | |
| Internal links updated after any URL change |
FAQ
What is anchor text in SEO?
Anchor text is the visible, clickable text of a link. Google uses it, along with the surrounding content, to understand what the linked page is about. It should describe the destination clearly.
What is a good anchor text ratio?
Google publishes no ratio, and there is no reliable study that sets one. Natural profiles are mostly branded, URL and descriptive anchors with a minority of exact-match keywords. If you are not building links with chosen anchors, you do not need to manage a ratio.
Is exact-match anchor text bad?
Not on its own. An exact-match anchor is often the most natural description of a page, especially for internal links. The risk comes from building many external links with the same keyword anchor, which Google's spam policies describe as link spam.
Does anchor text matter for internal links?
Yes. Google's documentation says anchor text helps both people and Google understand the linked page, and that applies to links within your site. Descriptive internal anchors are low effort and fully under your control.
Should I use nofollow on external links?
Only when needed. Google's guidance is to use rel="sponsored" for paid links, rel="ugc" for user-generated links and nofollow when you do not want to vouch for a page. Normal citations to sources you trust can stay as standard links.
Can Google penalise me for anchor text?
Google's systems mostly devalue manipulative links, so they stop helping. A manual action is possible when a site takes part in link schemes, and it appears in Search Console with instructions to fix it.
