What are anchor texts in SEO?
Anchor text is the visible text of a hyperlink — what users click. In SEO, anchors are important: they tell search engines what the donor page and target are about. Types: naked ("here", URL), branded ("Apple"), commercial ("buy coffee"), LSI ("website optimization"). Healthy anchor profile: 60% naked + branded, 30% LSI, 10% commercial. Over-optimization with commercial anchors gets penalized by Penguin (Google).
Anchor text is the visible text of a hyperlink — what users click. In HTML it's between <a>...</a>. For SEO, anchors tell search engines what the donor and target pages are about. Right anchor distribution = safe link building.
5 anchor types
| Type | Example | Safety |
|---|---|---|
| Naked | "here", URL | Highest |
| Branded | "Apple" | High |
| Natural | "read more" | High |
| LSI | "website optimization" | Medium |
| Commercial (exact match) | "buy coffee online" | Low |
Healthy distribution
- 60% naked + branded + natural.
- 30% LSI.
- 10% commercial exact-match.
Penalties
- Google Penguin (now part of Core) — for unnatural profile.
- Sudden drop of 10–50 positions on high-frequency keywords.
This question is also asked as:
- •what is anchor text
- •anchor text optimization
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