What Is Anchor Text?: Optimization Tips for A Better User Experience

You already know backlinks play a huge role in determining a domain’s authority if you’re familiar with SEO. But how much time do you spend considering a link’s anchor text? How many types are there? Does one affect Google’s algorithm more?

People have questions.

Like this person:

…and this one:

So, let’s explore what anchor text is, how to use it, and just how vital a ranking factor it really is.

What Is Anchor Text?

Anchor text are the clickable words containing a target URL linking one web page to another. It hides the hyperlink and makes it more reader-friendly.

For example, if someone reading your article about “SEO Wins” encountered the linked phrase “keyword research,” it’s likely that term sends people to a post about keyword research.

On the back end of your WordPress text editor, it looks like this:

While your readers see this in your content:

Simply put, the text anchors two web pages together.

Hyperlink Anatomy 101: How to Build Anchor Text Links Manually

WordPress lets you do this without needing to know any HTML. But, if you’re curious, here’s the 3-part breakdown:

1. Anchor tag: <a></a>
2. Web destination (aka the target URL): href (short for “hypertext reference”)
3. Anchor text: your keyword phrase

Here’s the same example from above:

• <a href="https.getlasso.co/niche-keyword-research/">keyword research</a>

Those are your three primary components.

Now in the above HTML example, there are two additional pieces of code:

1. target=”_blank”
2. rel=”noopener”

The first opens your link in a new browser tab. The second serves as a security protocol for malicious attacks.

Why use these?

The target=”_blank” attribute acts as a breadcrumb, so you don’t lose the original article you were reading. So, for example, if I’m reading that “SEO Wins” post and click the keyword research anchor text link, it opens in a new tab.

It’s nice to help visitors find their way back to your post, but I saw nothing indicating it carries any SEO impact as per this reply from Google’s Search Advocate, John Mueller:

You’re correct 🙂

— 🐝 johnmu.xml (personal) 🐝 (@JohnMu) October 15, 2021

So you can use it, but it doesn’t appear to be a crucial ranking factor.

Using the rel=”noopener” HTML attribute prevents malicious JavaScript from gaining control of the referring window.

It denies access to the web page you’re opening from the link, retrieving its sensitive data and spreading harmful code.

Sidenote: If you question a link’s legitimacy, hover your cursor over the anchor text to see its target URL (like the above screenshot). If it looks suspicious, don’t click it.

Further Reading:

• How to Upgrade Your Site’s SEO with Internal Linking

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8 Anchor Text Types You Should Know

People use different types of anchor text when linking to web pages.

Imagine somebody wanted to link our product review template article. According to Ahrefs data, that keyword term gets 1,400 global monthly searches.

Here are common ways referring domains may link to that post.

Exact match anchor text: Uses the same keyword phrase you want to rank for.

• Get Lasso’s product review template is my favorite article.

Generic anchor text: Uses terms such as “read more” and “click here.”

Branded anchor text: Uses your brand’s name.

• Lasso’s product review template is my favorite article.

Partial match: Uses your keyword phrase in any order.

• We use this template for writing product reviews.

Brand + Keyword: Uses the brand plus the keyword phrase.

• Lasso’s product review template

Naked URL: Uses the full URL of the linking web page.

• Our favorite article is Lasso’s product review template (getlasso.co/product-review-template).

Image anchor: Contains alt text to describe the image to people using screen readers and has the hyperlink embedded in the image.

<a href="https:getlasso.co/product-review-template"><img src="product-review-template.png" alt="product review template"</a>

Phrase match: Contains your target keyword with modifiers.

• Our favorite product review template article or gold standard product review template is worth stealing.

Why Anchor Text Matters for SEO

Search engines want to give the best user experience. And anchor text tells the algorithm what your content’s linked page is about.

Consider your words. Do they entice clicks? Two metrics to think about are whether it’s:

• Descriptive
• Appealing

The other is relevancy. Your reader is thinking, “If I click this link, where will it take me?” before they even click.

Your anchor text tells them. So, for example, if your article is about how to carve a turkey and you link to another article with the text “best carving knives,” that makes sense.

Relevancy + descriptive = winning formula. It clearly defines your site structure and lets web crawlers navigate your content easier.

In their patent paper, Google founders Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page said that:

Most search engines associate the text of a link with the page that the link is on. In addition, we associate it with the page the link points to

They went on:

It boils down to quality and a good user experience.

Troubleshooting Your Anchor Text

Many SEO plugins like Yoast include a focus keyphrase in the post editor to ensure you use proper terms.

For example, if your article’s primary target keyword is “affiliate marketing,” but you link to another post using that term as anchor text, you’ll get a warning from Yoast.

This can result in lower rankings for both pieces because it looks like they’re competing for the same keyword.

One workaround is putting your focus keyword phrase in quotes.

For example, if your article’s keyphrase is the long-tail “how to make money blogging,” and you include any of those terms in a clickable text link, Yoast may suggest you change it.

But wrapping your term in quotes tells its SEO analysis only to warn you if the entire phrase matches, so now it’s ok to use words from your focus keyphrase as anchor text.

• 11 SEO Copywriting Strategies to Boost Engagement & Visibility

Google’s Game-Changing Penguin Algorithm Update

Unfortunately, people gamed the system in Google’s early days.

SEOs discovered how easy it was to rank with black hat tactics, including:

• Using several keywords in a single link (i.e., keyword stuffing)
• Using white text invisible to readers but detected by web crawlers

Nowadays, irrelevant keyword-rich anchors no longer fly.

Google’s 2012 Penguin algorithm update tackled spam factors head-on, including keyword stuffing, and made a slight 3.1% impact – it was a step in the right direction.

So, when a site has many inbound links with identical anchor text, it looks suspicious. That’s why using keyword-stuffed spammy URLs no longer works.

Further Reading:

• 9 Common Affiliate Marketing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

How to Find Your Anchor Text

An SEO tool is the quickest way to find your site’s anchor text. We use Ahrefs.

Enter your domain into Site Explorer and head to “Anchors.”

Review your site’s backlink profile.

You’ll see the terms people use when linking to you. This can give you ideas for new content to create, along with how they perceive your site.

Further Reading:

• WordPress Links Manager: 7 Better Plugin Options

How to Optimize Your Anchor Text

Anchor text isn’t created equal, and, as mentioned earlier, people link to your site using different terms.

The more keywords your site gets recognized for (aka latent semantic indexing), the better your chances of higher rankings. So ask yourself, “Which terms best describe your site, and what do you want it to be known for?”

It’s something to consider with your link-building and internal linking strategies.

Your text should sound:

• Natural
• Relevant
• Conversational

The simplest way to optimize anchor text for SEO is by accurately describing the page you’re linking to and always linking to where you say you will. Then, focus on putting your primary keyword close to the link and placing it in relevant content.

Google’s gotten smarter with its natural language processing (NLP) and its evolution of algorithm changes, including:

• Penguin update (2012)
• Hummingbird (2013)
• Bert (2019)

Nowadays, the surrounding text of a link gets considered. It’s probably why Ahrefs includes it in the “Anchor” report.

Review your site’s organic keywords and the ones you want to rank for. Next, consider which ones have high search volume. Then, when possible, use those variations for building backlinks.

What’s A Good Natural Anchor Text Ratio?

Your anchor text profile combines the different types of anchor text your site uses. For example, many SEOs use a variety of words when link building.

SEMrush says to strive for:

• 30% to 40% of branded anchors
• 30% to 40% partial match anchors
• 20% to 40% generic, related, naked, random, and exact match

Why the variety?

You may trigger a Google spam filter when there is only one anchor text link type pointing at your site. Most backlink profiles have a mix of words.

If you want to know a good ratio, look at other websites in your niche and examine how your anchor text profile matches up.

Here’s how to analyze your competition:

Review the top 10 ranking sites with similar domain ratings in your niche for the keyword you want to rank for.

For example, let’s look at SEMrush for the term “link building.”

You can see that ~10% of the referring domains use the exact match anchor “link building” while ~3% are branded and ~2.5% are a phrase match.

1. “Link building” – exact match 10.2%
2. “SEMrush” – branded 3.8%
3. “Link building strategy” – phrase match – 2.5%

But let’s go further.

When we look at the top 5 ranking posts for that keyword using exact match anchor text, we see:

• Moz 14.3%
• Backlinko 8.4%
• Semrush 10.2%
• Wordstream 14.4%
• Search engine journal 11.6%

Overall, ~11% (on average) of their anchor text profiles have an exact match, so that’s what you’d want to mirror if your site had a similar domain rating to this group.

Then rinse and repeat this process for the remaining anchor types.

SEO expert, Nathan Gotch, suggests these percentages:

• 70% branded
• 20% naked links
• 5% generic
• 5% partial match
• 1% exact match

But Does Your Anchor Text Ratio Really Matter?

The Google algorithm update, Hummingbird (2013), placed greater emphasis on natural language queries and less importance on keywords.

So if that’s the case, does anchor text ratio even matter?

According to an Ahrefs study, maybe not as much as we thought. They analyzed whether anchor text affects your search engine rankings and tested:

• Exact-match anchors
• Phrase-match anchors
• Partial-match anchors
• Random anchors

They found little correlation between anchor text and search rankings. In other words, targeting specific text types as part of a digital marketing strategy doesn’t have a huge impact.

Single keywords account for small percentages of web traffic.

Consider this:

Here’s one of our top posts ranking for the target keyword “how to make a million dollars” with its organic traffic:

And here’s the target keyword’s organic traffic:

670 / 4,407 = ~15% of traffic coming from our primary keyword. The rest stems from the 1,450 other keywords.

It’s why tools such as Clearscope exist: To capture more topical phrases relevant to your content getting used by searchers.

Final Thoughts

Anchor text helps search engines and readers know where they’re getting sent. It removes the guesswork regarding what’s behind the click and is excellent for building trust.

Don’t mistake “over-optimization” for higher SERP placement. At the end of the day, you’re creating content for humans. If it’s robotic, stuffed with keywords, they probably won’t return to your site.

Curious to learn more about how we help bloggers win at SEO? Read this.

Sean Brison is a dad, writer, business owner, and Content Lead at Lasso. He's spent the past several years in cahoots with Lasso's founder, Andrew, creating awesome things for people. He's also addicted to perfectly-balanced cocktails, the outdoors, and John Mulaney's stand-up comedy.