Also known as: Anchor text, Link text, Linked text
The anchor text is the visible, clickable text of a hyperlink in HTML (<a href="…">anchor text</a>). It signals to search engines what the target page is about — it was already named as a ranking factor in the original PageRank paper of 1998. Since the Penguin update in 2012, over-optimised anchor text (too many identical money-keyword anchors) has been one of the most frequent triggers of algorithmic penalties.
In a natural backlink profile, branded and URL anchors dominate (together often 50–70 %), followed by generic (15–25 %) and partial match (10–20 %). Exact match should stay below 5 % — anything above that looks manipulative and triggers algorithmic filters. For your own outreach: never dictate the exact anchor, but leave the natural wording to the editor.
What is dangerous with external backlinks is mandatory with internal links: clear, descriptive anchor texts containing the topic term of the target page. Instead of "more information", use "guide to long tail keywords". Internal anchors are the simplest and safest form of anchor text optimisation — Google reads them as a clear topical signal, and there is no penalty risk factor as there is with external links.
Example: An audit reveals that 47 % of all external backlinks to a shop domain use the anchor "cheap running shoes" — a classic Penguin trigger. After disavowing the worst anchor spam sources and deliberately building new backlinks with brand and URL anchors, the exact match share falls to 6 % — and visibility recovers by 180 % after four months.
Anchor text distribution in the Backlinks Hub
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