What is anchor text? A practical SEO guide

What you'll learn

This guide explains what anchor text is, the common anchor types, how anchor text interacts with crawling, indexing and ranking, a practical audit checklist for links on external publisher pages, and clear best practices you can apply when buying or earning placements.

What is anchor text?

Anchor text is the clickable text inside an HTML hyperlink. It appears in the page HTML as the visible text between an opening and closing <a> tag, and it can influence how search engines interpret the link's topical relevance.

Example of a standard textual link: Example product page

An image link uses the image's alt text as the de‑facto anchor text for accessibility and SEO purposes: <a href="https://example.com"><img src="logo.png" alt="Example brand"></a>

Types of anchor text

Exact-match

An anchor text that matches the target keyword or phrase exactly. Exact-match anchors can be useful when naturally placed, but heavy reliance on them raises flags with algorithmic systems.

Partial-match

A phrase that contains the target keyword plus other words. Partial-match anchors are more natural than exact-match when used in editorial sentences.

Branded

The company or product name used as anchor text. Branded anchors are safe and important for a natural backlink profile.

Generic

Non-descriptive anchors such as "click here" or "read more." These tell users little about the destination and should be used sparingly for accessibility reasons.

Naked URL

A visible URL used as the anchor, for example https://example.com. Useful in some contexts but less descriptive than a good phrase.

Image anchors and alt text

When a link uses an image, search engines rely on the image's alt attribute to understand the link's purpose. Always set descriptive alt text for linked images.

How anchor text interacts with crawling, indexing and ranking

Separate the concepts: crawling discovers the link, indexing decides whether the linked page is stored, and ranking orders the linked page in results. Anchor text is one signal among many that helps search engines infer the topical relevance of a linked page. It is not the sole determinant of ranking.

If a publisher's page is not indexed or is blocked from being crawled, a backlink there typically provides much less value for organic visibility than a link on an indexable page. Use independent checks (see audit checklist) because you generally do not have Search Console access for third‑party sites.

How to audit anchor text on external publisher pages

When you don't own the publisher site, verify a link from the outside. Use the following checklist to confirm the anchor exists, is visible to humans and search engines, and uses appropriate rel attributes.

Checklist (external verification)

• View the raw HTML: use a browser's View Source or curl to fetch the page HTML. Example: curl -A "Mozilla/5.0" https://publisher.example/page
• Check the rendered DOM: open Chrome DevTools Elements to ensure the anchor is present in the rendered DOM and not injected only after user interaction or in a hidden element.
• Confirm HTTP response and robots headers: curl -I https://publisher.example/page returns headers; check status code, X-Robots-Tag, and any canonical tags that might prevent indexation.
• Inspect rel attributes in the link HTML to see if the publisher set rel="nofollow", rel="sponsored" or rel="ugc". Remember there is no rel="dofollow" attribute; a normal link is simply a link without those rel values.
• Check indexation signals: use the site: operator or search for a unique sentence from the page. These public checks are useful indicators but are not definitive proof of indexation.
• Evaluate editorial context: is the link within an article paragraph, a resource list, or a footer? Editorial placements within relevant text are generally more valuable than links in sidebars or footers.
• Confirm the link is not hidden (CSS display:none, visibility:hidden or off-screen positioning) and is accessible to users; hidden links are a red flag.

Best practices and common mistakes

• Aim for a natural, diverse anchor profile: mix branded, partial-match, long-form descriptive anchors and occasional generic or naked URLs.
• Write anchors for people first: clear, descriptive anchors improve click-through and usability.
• Avoid excessive exact-match anchors from external sites; repeated identical keyword anchors are a common algorithmic signal of manipulation.
• Use rel attributes correctly when you control the publisher: rel="sponsored" for paid or compensated links; rel="ugc" for user-generated content; rel="nofollow" if you prefer to signal no endorsement. Keep in mind rel="nofollow" and similar values are treated by Google as hints, not absolute commands.
• Avoid hidden or deceptive anchors (large blocks of keyword-only anchors, tiny hidden text, or links served only to certain user‑agents), which can trigger algorithmic adjustments or manual review.

Paid links, sponsored content and Google's policy

Google’s public guidance is that links intended primarily to manipulate search rankings fall under link spam. Paid placements should include an appropriate rel attribute — typically rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow" — to indicate the link is compensated. This is a policy expectation, and search engines may treat such links differently via algorithmic filters or manual actions.

When evaluating paid placements, consider editorial context, publisher indexability, and audience relevance rather than relying solely on third‑party metrics. A well‑placed, indexable link within relevant copy typically delivers more long‑term value.

When buying placements: questions to ask publishers

• Where will the link appear on the page (article body, sidebar, footer)?
• Will the publisher use any rel attribute for the link, and which one?
• Is the page currently indexable (no robots blocks, no X-Robots-Tag: noindex, sensible canonical)?
• Can you preview the exact anchor text and surrounding paragraph before purchase?

Marketplaces and broker services that surface indexability, typical rel attributes and real editorial examples can reduce risk when buying placements. BlogDrip, for example, lists contextual details and crawl-status signals for publishers so you can evaluate anchors and placement context before you purchase.

If you want to browse publishers and inspect their sample anchors, use the marketplace to review contextual examples: Browse publishers for backlinks.

Further reading

If you want technical checks for your own site (URL inspection, indexing diagnostics, Core Web Vitals), see Read the Technical SEO Guide.

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