Anchor text

What the anchor text of a link is

Anchor text is the text that can be clicked on in a hyperlink or link to navigate to the content of another URL. In modern browsers, it is usually blue and underlined.

Why it is important

Put simply, the text or words we put in a link help users and search engines to determine the content associated with the landing page.
In other words,
If we use the anchor text “potato chips” in a hyperlink, everyone, including search engines, will expect to find content associated with this product. In this way, we can establish a direct relationship between the content presented to the user and a keyword.

Therefore,

The words contained in the anchor text help a search engine to rank the content of that page.
And we, through external and internal linking, can help search engines by creating more entry points (links) to that content while providing the semantic context (anchor text) to search engines to better rank the URL in question.
Do you now understand the importance of anchor text?

Example of anchor text

The code used to include a link or hyperlink in HTML is as follows:

Example Anchor Text

On the one hand, the destination URL is indicated AND, on the other hand, the keyword linking to that URL is identified.

Types of anchor text

Depending on the keywords used, we can distinguish several different types of anchor texts, which also serve different purposes.

Here are the most common typologies.

Take out your pencil and take good notes:

Exact match

Anchor text belongs to the “exact match” type if it includes a keyword that reflects the page it links to. For example, we can use the text “olives and pickles” to link to a category page within an alimentation e-commerce page.

These are the most explicit anchor texts and work best for search engines.

Partial match

Anchor text that includes a variation of the keyword of the page to which it links. Continuing with the previous example: “best olives and pickles” linking to the product category page of an e-commerce page.

Brand

A brand name is used as anchor text. For example: “lays” linking from an article in a digital newspaper and pointing to that brand’s home page.

URL or “naked” link

A URL that is used as an anchor. For example: ‘https://lays.es/’ is a bare link anchor.

Generic link

A generic word or phrase is used as an anchor. “Here” is a common generic anchor. They provide the least information and should be used less frequently, especially for internal linking on a website.

Images

Whenever an image is linked, Google will use the text contained in the alt attribute of the image as anchor text.

In conclusion:

Search engines use anchor text as a reflection of how other people view your page – and by extension, what pages they should present to users.

This is why anchor text is so relevant to search engine rankings.

Using balanced anchor texts that contribute to the contextualization of the topics of your pages is important but, like everything in life, you must be moderate and know how to use the different combinations and types of anchor text.

Google measures the frequency of each anchor text, evaluating its suitability and analyzing the language used to detect patterns or unnatural link profiles.

Therefore, these small texts are vital for any web project.

Important: Anchor text is a positioning factor for Google. In fact, it is included in several Google patents. Not using anchor text or using generic anchor text, such as “click here”, is generally considered bad SEO practice.

Tools and recommended readings:

• en.wikipedia.org
• neilpatel.com