---
title: "Anchor text"
url: https://marketingsignals.com/glossary/anchor-text
type: Page
---

# Anchor text

Anchor text explained: what Google's link guidance recommends, the main types of anchor text, and why keyword-stuffed anchors are treated as link spam.

Link building glossary

## Anchor text

Anchor text is the visible, clickable text of a hyperlink. Google uses it to understand what the linked page is about and recommends anchor text that is descriptive, reasonably concise and relevant to both pages. For an image used as a link, Google reads the image's alt attribute as the anchor text.

## What does Google say about anchor text?

Google's link best practices say good anchor text makes sense on its own, so a reader can tell what is behind the link without the surrounding sentence. It advises against generic text such as 'click here', against long anchors that run to a full sentence, and against chaining several links next to each other. On keywords, it says that if it feels like you're forcing keywords into the anchor text, then it's probably too much.

If a link has no text, Google can fall back on the link's title attribute. Anchor text inserted with JavaScript should be checked in the rendered HTML with the URL Inspection tool.

## What types of anchor text are there?

SEO tools usually group the anchors pointing to a site into a few types.

- Branded: the company or product name, such as Marketing Signals
- Naked URL: the address itself, such as marketingsignals.com
- Descriptive: a phrase that summarises the page, such as 'guide to SaaS link building'
- Exact match: the precise keyword the page targets
- Generic: 'read more', 'this article' or 'here'
- Image: the alt text of a linked image

## Why over-optimised anchors are a risk

Google's spam policies list links with optimised anchor text in articles, guest posts or press releases distributed on other sites as an example of link spam, along with forum signatures stuffed with keyword links. Its 2017 warning on article campaigns named stuffing keyword-rich links in articles as a sign of a link scheme. Links that publishers choose freely tend to use brand names, URLs and plain descriptions, so a profile dominated by one commercial phrase looks arranged.

## Example

Of 40 sites linking to a Leeds builder's loft conversion page, a natural mix might include the firm's name, its URL and phrases like 'this loft conversion cost guide'. If 30 of the 40 used the exact words 'cheap loft conversions Leeds', the pattern would suggest the links were placed rather than given.

## Related terms

- [Backlinks](https://marketingsignals.com/glossary/backlinks)
- [Link spam](https://marketingsignals.com/glossary/link-spam)
- [Internal linking](https://marketingsignals.com/glossary/internal-linking)
- [Guest posting](https://marketingsignals.com/glossary/guest-posting)

## Further reading

- [Link Building for SaaS: 20 Strategies That Work](https://marketingsignals.com/insights/saas-link-building-guide)

Our [SaaS Link-Building Agency](https://marketingsignals.com/service/saas-link-building) service puts this into practice for brands in the UK and US.

## Sources

- [Link best practices for Google, Google Search Central](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/links-crawlable)
- [Spam policies for Google web search, Google Search Central](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies)
- [A reminder about links in large-scale article campaigns, Google (25 May 2017)](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2017/05/a-reminder-about-links-in-large-scale)

## Ready To Build Links That Actually Rank?