What Is Anchor Text?

Date First Published: 15th August 2022

Topic: Web Design & Development

Subtopic: Web Design

Article Type: Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty Level: 5/10

Learn more about what anchor text is in this article.

Anchor text is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink. In HTML, it can be known as the link label. The anchor text is the second part of the hyperlink that describes it. The first part of the hyperlink is the URL. For example, if you linked to this article, you might use the anchor text 'What is anchor text?' below so that readers know more information about the link. Readers will only see the anchor text on a webpage and not the HTML tag or URL. Anchor text 'anchors' two different locations on the World Wide Web text together.

Anchors often link to webpages. However, they can also link to files and downloads. Anchor text can sometimes trick users into clicking on URLs that download malware. For example, a link text that says 'Article about websites' could actually take the visitor to a malicious page. This is why it is always important to hover over a link to see where it points before clicking on it to make sure that the URL is legitimate. The URL will appear at the bottom of the window.

Anchor text is often blue and underlined so that it can be differentiated from normal text, but it doesn't have to be. The anchor text to previously visited hyperlinks may be purple for usability.

Types Of Anchor Text

Different types of anchor text include:

• Exact match - Anchor text that is used with a keyword that is exactly the same as the page that it is being linked to. For example, 'hyperlink' is an exact match anchor as it links to a page about hyperlinks.
• Partial match - Anchor text that is used with a keyword that matches the page it is being linked to and a few other keywords that don't match. For example, 'article about what a hyperlink is' is a partial match anchor as it contains one matching keyword and some unmatching keywords.
• Branded - Anchor text that uses a brand. For example, Microsoft is a branded anchor text.
• Naked link - Anchor text that only consists of a URL (e.g. https://computerhelp4all.com).
• Generic - Anchor text that uses a generic word or phrase (e.g. 'Click here', 'Visit this website', etc).
• Images - Google will use the 'ALT' tag as anchor text whenever an image is linked.
• Empty - Whenever an image is missing an 'ALT' tag.

Search Engines

Anchor text is commonly used by search engines to rank pages as the linked text is usually relevant to the URL. The aim of search engines is to provide search results relevant to searcher's keywords. Google Search Console allows webmasters to view the most common words in anchor text linking to their website. In the past, Google bombing was possible through manipulation of anchor text, causing someone else's website to rank high for a meaningless query. In January 2007, Google announced that it had updated its algorithm to reduce the effects of Google bombing. In March 2012 with the 'Penguin' update, Google announced that it would be changing the way it handled anchor text, suggesting that anchor text would no longer be an important element for their ranking metrics. Google would be paying attention to a larger link profile, which has a combination of anchor text and other types of links.

However, a 2016 study of anchor text influence across 16,000 keywords determined that the presence of exact and partial match anchor links continues to have a big association with Google rankings.