<a href="...">this is the anchor text</a>. Search engines use anchor text as a topical relevance signal: the words chosen to describe a link help establish what the destination page is about, supplementing the content of the destination page itself.
Types of Anchor Text
Not all anchor text carries the same SEO weight. Exact match anchor text — where the anchor contains the precise target keyword — sends the strongest topical signal but looks unnatural if overused. Partial match anchor text includes the target keyword with other words, which is more natural and still effective. Branded anchors use the company or product name and are appropriate for homepage links.
Generic anchors like "click here," "read more," or "learn more" waste the relevance opportunity entirely — they tell search engines nothing about the destination. Naked URL anchors (where the URL itself is displayed) similarly carry no keyword signal. Image anchors pass no visible text; their relevance signal comes from the image's alt attribute.
- Exact match: "best internal link tools" — strong signal, use sparingly
- Partial match: "guide to internal link optimization" — natural and effective
- Generic: "click here" — zero topical signal, avoid where possible
How Anchor Text Affects SEO
When Googlebot crawls a link, it reads the anchor text and uses it to understand what the destination page is about. A page that receives many internal links with "internal link strategy" as anchor text accumulates a strong topical signal for that phrase — reinforcing its relevance for related queries even beyond its own content.
Upload your Screaming Frog CSV — free, instant, nothing stored.
See your internal link equity in 30 seconds →For internal links specifically, anchor text is fully in your control. This is a significant advantage over backlinks, where you typically cannot dictate the anchor text used by third-party sites. Systematic use of descriptive, keyword-relevant internal anchor text across your site is one of the highest-ROI activities in on-page SEO.
- Descriptive internal anchor text reinforces topic relevance for the destination page
- Generic anchors on internal links waste a free relevance signal you control entirely
- Anchor text diversity (mixing exact, partial, branded) looks natural and reduces over-optimization risk
Anchor Text Best Practices
For internal links, the primary rule is: describe what users will find at the destination. If you are linking to a guide about crawl budget, use anchor text like "how to optimize crawl budget" rather than "read our guide." The additional 30 seconds required to write a descriptive anchor pays dividends in both SEO and user experience.
Audit your internal anchor text periodically. Use LinkJuice to see the full anchor text distribution for your most important pages. If a priority page receives mostly generic anchors from internal links, updating those anchors to be descriptive and keyword-relevant is a low-effort, high-impact optimization.
- Always describe the destination, not the action (avoid "click here," "learn more")
- Mix anchor text types: exact match, partial match, and branded anchors
- Audit anchor text for your priority pages and update generic anchors to descriptive ones
Upload your Screaming Frog CSV — free, instant, nothing stored.
Find your site's weakest links before Google does →Frequently Asked Questions
- What is anchor text in SEO?
- Anchor text is the clickable text of a hyperlink — the words a user sees and clicks. Search engines use anchor text to understand the topical relationship between the linking page and the destination page. Descriptive, keyword-relevant anchor text strengthens the ranking signal for the target keyword on the destination page.
- What are the different types of anchor text?
- Exact match (the anchor exactly matches the target keyword), partial match (includes the keyword with other words), branded (the company or site name), generic (click here, read more), naked URL (the URL itself as anchor text), and image anchor text (the alt attribute of a linked image).
- Can over-optimized anchor text be penalized?
- For backlinks, yes. Manipulative patterns where many external sites use identical exact-match anchor text to point to the same page triggered Google's Penguin algorithm. For internal links, over-optimization is less likely to trigger a penalty, but diverse, natural anchor text is still best practice.
- How does LinkJuice display anchor text data?
- LinkJuice extracts anchor text from your Screaming Frog export and displays it alongside each source/target link pair. You can see exactly what anchor text each page receives through its internal links and audit for generic or missing anchors that should be more descriptive.
Audit Your Anchor Text Free
Upload your Screaming Frog CSV and see exactly what anchor text your most important pages receive through internal links — and where generic anchors are wasting SEO value.
Upload crawl & start🔒 Runs in your browser. Your data never leaves your machine. No email needed.