TLDR
Backlink anchor text is the clickable text within a hyperlink that directs you to another webpage.
It’s the visible text that users see and click on to navigate to a different page or website.
This text is crucial for both users and search engines, as it provides context about the linked page and helps determine its relevance to the search query.
The text that’s used when linking back to your website tells both users and search engines a lot about what you offer. It also helps paint a picture of how trustworthy you might be without even having to look at your site.
That clickable text is known as the link ‘anchor’ or ‘anchor text’, and your anchor text profile is simply an overview of how that text is distributed. Let’s look at an example to make this clearer.
If I link to Ahrefs’ Site Explorer, the anchor text for the link I just included is “Site Explorer”. Looking at a snapshot of their anchor text profile below, we can see a breakdown of the most common ways people link to their website. We can see that most sites that link to them either use their brand name, website or the name of one of their tools (as I just did).
This is a healthy looking profile, let’s take a closer look at why that is and some anchor text best practices to help your link building efforts.
Understanding the bigger picture
Google essentially considers active link building to be spam. BUT, if you don’t have enough links, your rankings will suffer. (Isn’t SEO fun?)
With that in mind, what you’re trying to achieve is a profile that hits all of the points below but still looks natural.
Be descriptive. Tell users what the link takes them to.
Remember, users buy your product, not search engines. Descriptive text should be your first priority. This feels like a safer click for users and also gives them a reason to click that link in the first place.
If they understand what the link is offering and it sounds like it’d be helpful to them, they’re more likely to click it. Which brings me to my next point.
Referral traffic is the most important thing a backlink brings
SEOs tend to focus solely on the intangible ranking improvement you get from quality link building. Really though, the most important thing is referral traffic.
Real. qualified users having a good reason to visit your website and build trust with your brand. Don’t lose sight of that when considering your anchor text options.
Relevance makes for good anchor text
The distribution of your anchor text profile is a relevance signal for search engines. If you’re a cannabis ERP platform but the most common anchor in your profile is “paint brushes”, you’re immediately raising some serious red flags.
Your profile should typically look something like Ahrefs’ above. The most common anchors are variations of your brand name and website, followed by products, services, features and integrations that you offer.
No matter how diligent, you will get random anchor text show up in your profile and that’s fine. So long as the majority make sense and these random ones are the most common, you’re all set.
Don’t over-optimize your anchor text profile
Like many things in the world of SEO, a healthy profile is about balance. You want your most common anchor text to be relevant to you, but you don’t want it so curated that 100% of your links are spread across just 10 different anchor variants.
Since a naturally-occurring link profile will have a lot of variation, if yours is nothing but a handful of keywords, that’s another red flag that you’re up to no good.
Achieve a more natural profile by prioritizing better writing
In other words, if you’re writing or contributing to content that’s getting posted on another site, don’t force your optimized anchor text where it doesn’t fit.
This is an old and obviously spammy tactic that we still see around. For example:
Bad
“… this is where <ahref=”https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AC4HFFBDBx0mriPn_S36WCVAAgybR9hMuvWMK50mluQ/edit#”>best hiring software 2023 comes in.”
Good
“… this is where hiring software comes in.”
By using anchor text that feels natural, you’re making sure it’s still relevant to your site but not forcing over-optimization.
Conclusion
Anchor text might seem like a small detail, but it plays a huge role in both SEO performance and user trust. A well-balanced anchor text profile sends strong relevance signals to search engines, builds credibility, and—most importantly—drives real traffic from real people.
If you’re actively building links, aim for natural, varied anchor text that clearly describes what users can expect when they click. Let relevance guide you, not just keywords. When in doubt, write like a human, not a spammer.
Get that right, and you’ll build a healthier link profile that stands the test of time and algorithm updates.
There are 5 tpes of anchor text you can use;
- Exact Match: Contains the exact keyword you want to rank for (e.g., “best running shoes”).
- Partial Match: Contains a variation of the keyword (e.g., “buy running shoes online”).
- Branded: Uses the brand name (e.g., “Nike”).
- Naked URL: Uses the URL as the anchor text (e.g., “example.com”).
- Generic: Uses general phrases like “click here” or “learn more”.
Anchor text is one of the easiest things to control and get right in SEO. In general you should focus on;
- Relevance: Anchor text should be relevant to the content of the linked page.
- Diversity: Avoid using the same anchor text repeatedly. Use a variety of anchor texts to appear natural to search engines.
- Natural Language: Use natural language and variations of your keywords. You want your anchor text to fit into the content you’re writing. Don’t break the flow of your content just for the sake of SEO anchor text.
- Avoid Over-optimization: Don’t stuff keywords into anchor text. Focus on providing helpful and descriptive links.
Anchor text is important for SEO as it helps users and search engines to understand and navigate between webpages. More specifically, anchor text is important for;
- User Experience: Anchor text helps users understand the content of the linked page before they click, improving their overall experience.
- Search Engine Optimization
Search engines use anchor text to understand the context of the linked page and its relevance to certain keywords.
Descriptive anchor text can help improve a page’s ranking for those keywords. - Link Building
Anchor text is a crucial element in link-building strategies, as it helps signal to search engines the relevance of the linked page. - Internal Linking
Anchor text is also important for internal linking within a website, helping users and search engines navigate through the site’s content.
