Anchor text. The clickable words that punch above their weight.

What anchor text is

Anchor text is the visible, clickable text inside a hyperlink. In the link:

<a href="/services/seo">our Perth SEO service</a>

The anchor text is "our Perth SEO service". It is what the user sees and clicks on. It is also one of the strongest signals Google uses to understand what the destination page is about.

The same target URL can be linked with many different anchors across a site. /services/seo might be linked from one page as "our Perth SEO offering", from another as "what SEO actually involves at our agency", and from a third as "see how we do SEO". Three different anchors, one destination, three different signals to Google about the destination's topic.

The cumulative effect of all the anchor text pointing at a page (internal links plus external backlinks) is sometimes called the "anchor text profile" of that URL. Google reads this profile as a vote-of-confidence summary: "many other pages call this URL X, so it is probably about X".

Why Google cares

Anchor text was one of the original PageRank signals back in 1998. The logic was simple: if many pages link to a destination using the same phrase, that phrase is probably an accurate description of the destination. It is a vote of confidence carrying a topic label.

Twenty-eight years later the logic has not changed, though Google has gotten much better at filtering manipulation. The Penguin update in 2012 specifically targeted unnatural anchor text patterns (millions of exact-match keyword anchors from low-quality sites). Modern systems use anchor text as a signal but cross-check it against the destination's actual content, the site's overall trust signals, and the pattern of all the other anchors pointing in.

For internal links the signal is strong and largely unfiltered. You control your own site's anchor text, so Google treats it as a clean topical hint. For external backlinks the signal is filtered more aggressively, because external anchors are easier to manipulate.

The six types of anchor text

Every link's anchor falls into one of six categories. Healthy sites use a mix.

1. Exact-match

The anchor is literally the target keyword. Link to /services/seo with anchor "SEO services". Strong signal, but overusing it looks manipulative. Use sparingly for internal links, rarely for external ones.

2. Partial-match

The anchor contains the target keyword inside a larger phrase. "Read our Perth SEO services breakdown" includes "Perth SEO services" but reads naturally. The workhorse anchor type. Should be the bulk of your internal anchors.

3. Branded

The anchor is the brand name. "Visit The SEO Company" or "according to The SEO Company". Common in editorial-style content and external backlinks. Looks natural and is hard to manipulate.

4. Naked URL

The anchor is the URL itself. "Visit https://theseocompany.com.au/services/seo for more." Common in citations and references. Carries less topical signal than partial-match but looks editorial.

5. Generic

The anchor is a non-descriptive phrase. "Click here", "read more", "learn more", "this article". The wasted slot. Carries zero topical signal. Use only for buttons and CTAs where SEO is not the point.

6. Image

The link wraps an image with no text. Google uses the image's alt text as the de facto anchor. This is why image SEO alt text matters: it doubles as anchor text when the image is the link.

A healthy anchor distribution

Across all the internal anchors pointing at any single page, here is the rough mix we aim for on Perth client sites:

• Partial-match: 50 to 60 percent. Natural language descriptions that include the target keyword.
• Branded or branded-plus-keyword: 20 to 30 percent. Mentions of The SEO Company alone or combined with the topic.
• Exact-match: 5 to 10 percent. Sparingly, in places where the exact keyword fits naturally.
• Naked URL: 5 percent. Mostly footer or contact-style.
• Generic: as little as possible. Save "read more" for CTAs only.

For external backlinks (which you do not control as tightly), the mix tilts even more heavily toward branded and partial-match because Google treats external exact-match anchors as the most suspicious. A backlink profile with 60 percent exact-match anchors is a Penguin penalty waiting to happen.

Anchor text variety: a worked example

Suppose you want to lift the ranking of /services/seo. You add ten new internal links from blog posts and cluster pages. The ten anchors should look something like this:

1. "Our Perth SEO service" (partial-match)
2. "What SEO actually involves at our agency" (partial-match, varied)
3. "The SEO Company's SEO service page" (branded + partial)
4. "How we do SEO" (partial)
5. "SEO services from The SEO Company" (partial + branded)
6. "Read about our SEO offering" (partial)
7. "SEO services" (exact-match, used once)
8. "Our service overview" (partial, varied)
9. "Get an SEO retainer with us" (branded angle)
10. "The SEO Company" (branded)

Ten links, ten distinct anchors, one exact-match in the mix. Google reads this as a natural editorial distribution. Authority flows to the destination. The destination's likelihood of ranking for "SEO services" and "Perth SEO" both lift.

Compare that with the alternative: ten links all anchored "Perth SEO services". Google notices. The signal is technically stronger per link but the pattern looks manipulative, and modern systems discount manipulative patterns.

Mistakes to avoid

Tools and checklists

1. Screaming Frog. The "Anchor Text" report under Internal shows every link on the site with its anchor and target. Sort by target URL to see the anchor distribution for each destination.
2. Ahrefs / SEMrush. Both show external backlink anchor distribution. Useful for spotting external anchor patterns that might be triggering Penguin filtering.
3. Google Search Console Links report. Settings → Links → Top linking text. Shows the most common external anchors pointing at your domain. If anything here looks unnatural, dig in.
4. Our free SEO audit tool. Flags pages with generic anchor text ("click here") and pages with over-concentrated exact-match anchors.

A pre-publish anchor checklist

1. Does every link have descriptive anchor text (not "click here")?
2. Is the anchor written naturally into the surrounding sentence?
3. If linking to a target page that already has many inbound anchors, is this anchor distinct from the others?
4. For image links, is the alt text descriptive?
5. For external backlinks you are building, is the anchor branded or partial-match, not exact-match?
6. Does the anchor accurately describe the destination?

Perth and WA context

Multi-location service businesses. A Perth plumbing business linking from suburb pages to service pages should vary the anchors across suburbs. Anchor "emergency plumbing in Joondalup" on the Joondalup page, "emergency plumbing for Cockburn residents" on the Cockburn page, "after-hours plumbing service across Fremantle" on the Fremantle page. Same destination, three context-aware anchors. Each lifts the destination for a slightly different long-tail query. See SEO Joondalup, SEO Cockburn, SEO Fremantle, and trades SEO.

E-commerce stores. Product page internal links often suffer from "buy now" or "shop now" anchors on hundreds of product cards. Switching to descriptive product-name anchors lifts long-tail product rankings substantially. See e-commerce SEO.

Editorial blogs. Perth-based publications and professional-services blogs often have authoritative articles that link to other articles using only "click here". Rewriting these to descriptive anchors is a half-day job that lifts the whole archive. See legal SEO and healthcare SEO for regulated-industry examples.

Mining services. B2B sites often link to case studies and capability statements with anchors like "more info" or "PDF". Replacing with the specific commodity and project ("see our Pilbara iron ore haul-truck case study") makes the page eligible for far more long-tail B2B queries. See mining SEO and SEO Karratha.

For the broader internal-linking strategy that anchor text sits inside, the internal linking chapter is the next stop. For the off-page side, the off-page SEO pillar covers the external-anchor-profile half. And the parent On-Page SEO pillar ties it all together.