What Is Anchor Text? Types, Examples and What Ratio to Use
Anchor text is the clickable words in a link. The 7 types with examples, why the mix matters, and how to keep yours looking natural.
Anchor text is the clickable words in a link. It's usually blue and underlined, and it's one of the main ways Google works out what the page you're linking to is about. (New to links? Start with what backlinks are.)
Get it right and it quietly helps you rank. Get greedy with it and it's one of the fastest ways to make a link profile look built rather than earned.
What anchor text looks like
On the page, a reader just sees trail running shoes as a link. Google sees those words and takes them as a strong hint about what stridely.com/trail covers.
Why anchor text matters
Anchor text is context. If 50 sites link to your page with words about trail running shoes, Google has a pretty good idea what that page is for.
The problem is everyone worked that out. For years SEOs pointed hundreds of links at a page with the exact keyword as the anchor, and it worked until Google's Penguin update in 2012 started hitting sites for it. It's now covered by Google's rules on link schemes. Since then a profile stuffed with exact-match anchors has been a classic sign of manipulation.
So anchor text helps, but only when the mix looks like the one real people would create.
The 7 types of anchor text
Examples below are for a page about trail running shoes on a made-up brand, Stridely.
| Type | Example | How common naturally | Risk if overused |
|---|---|---|---|
| Branded | "Stridely" | Very | Low |
| Naked URL | "stridely.com/trail" | Very | Low |
| Generic | "this guide", "click here", "read more" | Common | Low |
| Partial match | "Stridely's guide to trail shoes" | Common | Low to medium |
| Topical | "grip on wet, muddy trails" | Common | Low |
| Exact match | "trail running shoes" | Rare | High |
| Image | The alt text of a linked image | Occasional | Low |
The pattern is simple. The anchors people use without thinking (your brand, your URL, "this article") are the safe ones. The keyword-rich ones are where the value is, and also where the risk is.
What anchor text ratio should you use?
Google has never published a "safe" ratio, so anyone quoting you an exact percentage is guessing. What you want is a mix that looks like your niche's natural profile, with brand and URL anchors doing most of the work.
As a starting point before you've checked your competitors:
| Anchor type | Starting range | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Branded | 30 to 50% | What most real links look like |
| Naked URL | 15 to 25% | Common in citations and resource lists |
| Partial match + topical | 15 to 25% | Where most of your relevance comes from, safely |
| Generic | 10 to 15% | Natural filler, nobody links to everything with a keyword |
| Exact match | Under 5% | Powerful, but the first thing that looks unnatural |
These numbers shift by niche. A local business profile will be heavy on brand names and citation URLs, while a SaaS company that gets cited in comparison posts will naturally pick up more partial-match anchors.
How to check your competitors' anchor mix
This is the step most people skip, and it's the one that tells you what "natural" looks like for your keyword.
- Search your target keyword and note the top 3 ranking pages
- Drop each one into Ahrefs Site Explorer (or another of the link building tools) and open the Anchors report
- Group their anchors into the types above and work out rough percentages
- Compare against your own profile and close the gaps slowly
If the pages ranking in the top 3 all sit at around 2% exact match and you're at 20%, that's your answer.
Anchor text on links you control
You don't pick the anchor on links you earn naturally, someone just links to you however they like. But on guest posts, niche edits and blogger outreach links you usually do get a say, and that's where most over-optimisation happens.
A few rules worth sticking to:
- Write the anchor to fit the sentence. If it reads like it was jammed in for SEO, it was, and Google can tell
- Rotate. Never use the same keyword anchor twice in a row across your link building
- Lead with brand for new sites. Get the brand profile established before you push keyword anchors
- Spread it across pages. Point some links at your homepage and supporting content, not everything at the one money page
- Track every anchor you build in a simple sheet so you know your real mix
Internal links are different
Anchor text on links between your own pages is much lower risk. Google's own SEO guidance recommends descriptive anchor text for internal links, so linking to your pricing page with "link building pricing" is fine.
Use internal links to do the keyword-rich work your external profile shouldn't have to. It's free, you control it completely, and it's one of the most underused levers in SEO.
Common anchor text mistakes
| Mistake | Why it hurts | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Exact match on every bought link | Classic manipulation pattern | Keep exact match under 5%, rotate partial and topical |
| Anchor doesn't match the target page | Confuses relevance and looks off to readers | Anchor should describe the page it points to |
| Ignoring brand anchors | Profile looks built, not earned | Make brand and URL the majority |
| Copying a ratio from a blog post | Your niche's natural mix may be different | Check the top 3 for your keyword |
| No record of anchors used | You can't see when you're drifting | Log every link and anchor as you build |
The short version
- Anchor text is the clickable words in a link, and Google uses it as a relevance signal
- Brand and naked URL anchors should make up most of your profile
- Exact match is powerful but keep it small, under 5% is a sensible ceiling
- There's no official ratio, so check what's ranking in your niche and match it roughly
- Be generous with internal anchors and disciplined with external ones