Anchor text is the visible, clickable words in a link. In the sentence "see our commercial roof inspection checklist," the underlined words are the anchor text. It matters for SEO because search engines read it as a short description of the page the link points to, and it matters for people because it tells them what they'll get before they click. Good anchor text is specific and short. "Click here" is the classic example of the bad kind.
Here's what Google actually says about it, and how to apply that on your own site without overthinking it.
What it looks like in code
A link is an <a> element. The anchor text is whatever sits between the opening and closing tags:
<a href="/services/roof-inspections/">commercial roof inspections</a>
When an image is the link, there's no visible text, so Google uses the image's alt text instead. If a link is empty, Google can use its title attribute as a fallback. Both cases are spelled out in Google's link best practices for Search.
Google's guidance, in six points
That same page is the closest thing to an official rulebook. Boiled down:
- Be descriptive and brief. Google says good anchor text is relevant both to the page it's on and to the page it links to.
- Avoid generic words. Google's own bad examples include "click here," "read more," "website" and "article."
- Test it out of context. Read only the link words. If they make sense on their own, they're specific enough.
- Skip the keyword cramming. Google asks you to write as naturally as possible and resist the urge to cram in every related keyword, and it notes that keyword stuffing violates its spam policies.
- Mind the surrounding sentence. The words before and after a link matter too.
- Space your links out. Links chained right next to each other are harder for readers to tell apart.
Google also says there's no magical ideal number of links for a page. Link where it helps the reader.
Internal links are where you have control
You can't decide how other websites link to you. You decide every link on your own site, and that's where anchor text pays off.
Google's advice is that every page you care about should have a link from at least one other page on your site. For a contractor or service firm, that usually means three habits. Link from each blog post to the service page it relates to, using the service's name as the anchor text. Link between related services where a buyer would naturally want both. And make sure every location page can be reached from somewhere other than the sitemap.
A post about choosing a roof coating that ends with "contact us today" wastes a link. The same post saying "our roof coating services in Columbus" tells the reader and Google exactly where to go.
Links from other sites
When another site links to you, the words they choose describe you, which is exactly why people have tried to control them. Google's spam policies count several anchor text tactics as link spam, among them links with optimized anchor text in articles, guest posts or press releases distributed on other sites, keyword-rich links hidden in widgets, and buying or selling links for ranking purposes.
Paid placements are allowed as long as the link is marked with a sponsored or nofollow attribute. If a vendor offers "keyword-rich backlinks," that's the thing Google's policy describes, and the risk lands on your site.
A quick audit of your own site
Open your five most important service pages and your five newest blog posts. List every link and its anchor text. Fix any that say "here," "click here" or "read more." Check that each service page has at least one link pointing to it from somewhere else on the site, with the service named in the link. Twenty minutes, most of the time.
For a wider look at how your site shows up, our Free AI Visibility Check looks at your website, your mobile speed, whether you come up in a local search, and what an AI assistant says when a buyer asks who to call. No email needed.
Short answers
How long should anchor text be?
A few words. Google sets no limit but calls very long anchors out.
Should every link use my main keyword?
No. Use the words that describe the page you're linking to, and let them vary the way they naturally would in writing, because a site where every link repeats the same phrase reads like it was built for a machine, and Google's guidance on keyword stuffing applies to links as much as to the text around them.
Where we come in
Anchor text is a small, steady habit. It's easy to get right on one page and hard to keep right across a hundred. In Inbound SDR we build your website, up to 100 pages, in the first month, planned around every service you sell and every area you serve, then publish a new blog every business day on your site. Technical SEO, structured data and your local listings are part of the program, along with a dedicated strategist and a monthly report. Packages start at $1,000 per month on a 12-month term.
If what you're after is a link-building campaign, that's not something we sell, and Google's spam policies are a good reason to be careful with anyone who does.
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