Anchor text is the visible, clickable text of a hyperlink. Search engines use anchor text as a signal to understand what the linked page is about. Natural anchor text profiles include a mix of branded, exact-match, partial-match, and generic text.
Why Anchor Text matters for SEO
Over-optimized anchor text (too many exact-match keyword links) can trigger Google's Penguin algorithm and result in penalties. Natural anchor text profiles include your brand name, URL, generic phrases ('click here'), and relevant keyword variations.
Related terms
BacklinkAnchor text is the visible text portion of a backlinkInternal LinkingUse descriptive anchor text for internal links instead of 'click here'
Check anchor text on your site
Anchor Text GeneratorBuild branded, partial, long tail and naked URL anchor variations for any page, then audit the anchors you already have against a natural distribution.External Link CheckerAudit who a page links out to and on what terms. Destinations grouped by domain, with rel nofollow, sponsored and ugc, new-tab safety, and live status.Internal Link AnalyzerSee which internal links a page makes in its own writing and which come from the template, grouped by destination, with anchor text, nofollow and live status.
CrawlRaven audits your internal link anchor text to ensure it's descriptive and varied, not over-optimized or generic.
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