Glossary · Technical
Anchor text
Definition. Anchor text is the visible, clickable text of a link. It tells search engines and readers what the destination page is about, which makes descriptive anchors more useful than generic ones.
Variation matters more than exact matching. A page linked a hundred times with identical commercial anchor text looks manufactured; the same page linked with natural variety does not.
For internal links, describe the destination. For external links, describe why the reader should follow it.
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Related terms
Internal linking
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Backlink
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nofollow
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More in Technical: Internal linking · Orphan page · Crawl budget · Indexation · Canonical URL · Duplicate content · Keyword cannibalization · Core Web Vitals
Frequently asked questions
What does Anchor text mean?
Anchor text is the visible, clickable text of a link. It tells search engines and readers what the destination page is about, which makes descriptive anchors more useful than generic ones.
Why does Anchor text matter for AI SEO?
Variation matters more than exact matching. A page linked a hundred times with identical commercial anchor text looks manufactured; the same page linked with natural variety does not.
What is the most common mistake with anchor text?
For internal links, describe the destination. For external links, describe why the reader should follow it.
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