SEO

Anchor Text

The clickable text of a hyperlink.

Anchor text is the visible, clickable text of a hyperlink. Search engines use anchor text as a strong signal about the target page's topic. A diversified, natural anchor text profile (branded, generic, partial-match, exact-match, naked URLs) signals organic linking; an over-optimized profile heavy on exact-match keywords is a common spam signal that can trigger penalties.

Example

Three different sites link to a SaaS company's CRM features page using: 'Acme CRM' (branded), 'click here' (generic), and 'best CRM software' (exact match). A natural mix supports rankings; 50 links all using 'best CRM software' would look manipulative.

Related terms

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