Anchor text is the clickable words in a link. Ten years ago, the advice was simple: never use “click here,” always use your keyword. That advice is outdated, and following it too literally now is more likely to hurt you than help you.
Here’s what anchor text actually does in 2026, for both traditional Google rankings and the AI engines now summarizing and citing your content.
What Anchor Text Still Tells Search Engines
Anchor text is a relevance signal. When a link reads “Los Angeles headshot photographer” instead of “click here,” it tells Google (and a human scanning the page) what’s on the other end of that link. That part hasn’t changed since 2015. What’s changed is how much weight that signal carries relative to everything else, and how easy it is to overdo it.
The Main Types of Anchor Text
- Exact match: The anchor text is your literal target keyword, for example “Los Angeles wedding photographer.” Powerful, but the riskiest to overuse.
- Partial match: A variation of the keyword, like “wedding photography services in LA.” Reads more naturally and still carries topical signal.
- Branded: The anchor text is a business or personal name, for example “GO-SEO” or “Vanie Poyey Photography.” This should make up a large share of your inbound links.
- Naked URL: The link text is the URL itself, like go-seo.com. Common, natural, and low risk.
- Generic: Phrases like “learn more” or “read this guide.” Fine occasionally, weak as your only anchor text strategy.
- Image alt text: When an image is the link, its alt text functions as anchor text. Worth writing with the same care as visible link text.
The mix matters more than any single link. A backlink profile that’s overwhelmingly exact-match keyword anchors looks manipulated to Google, even if every individual link is genuine. A natural mix leans heavily branded and naked URL, with exact and partial match as a minority.
Why Over-Optimized Anchor Text Backfires
Google’s Penguin update, and the ranking systems that grew out of it, specifically target link profiles where the anchor text pattern looks engineered rather than organic. Real websites earn links with all kinds of anchor text, mostly boring: brand names, URLs, article titles. If every link pointing at your site reads like a keyword you’re trying to rank for, that pattern stands out, and not in a good way.
This is one of the reasons a “link exchange campaign,” swapping identical exact-match anchor text with other sites, is a bad idea today even though it was common guidance in the past. It creates exactly the kind of unnatural pattern search engines are built to catch.
Internal Anchor Text: Where You Actually Have Control
You can’t control how other sites link to you, but you fully control the anchor text on your own internal links. This is the highest-leverage place to apply what you know about anchor text, because there’s no risk of it looking manipulated. It’s your site.
Use descriptive, specific anchor text when you link between your own pages. Instead of linking the word “here,” link the actual topic, like our guide to internal linking best practices. If you haven’t audited how your site links to itself, our 12-step technical SEO audit checklist covers where to start.
External Anchor Text: Build Relationships, Not Link Exchanges
For links pointing to your site from elsewhere, the goal isn’t to control the anchor text, it’s to earn links naturally through relationships, guest content, and being a resource worth citing. We cover this in more depth in how incoming links boost your search rankings. If a client or colleague links to you and asks what text to use, branded anchor text (“your business name”) is almost always the safest and most natural answer.
Anchor Text and AI Search (GEO)
AI engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews don’t rank pages with links the way Google’s core algorithm does, but anchor text still matters to them in a different way. These systems look at the surrounding text and context around a link to understand what a page is about and whether it’s worth citing as a source. Descriptive anchor text (yours and other sites’) helps establish that context. Vague anchor text gives an AI system nothing to work with.
We go deeper on how to structure content for AI citation in our guide to generative engine optimization.
A Practical Example
Say you’re a headshot photographer in Los Angeles. If a local blogger links to your site, “click here” tells search engines and AI systems nothing. “Los Angeles headshot photographer” tells them exactly what your page is about. If that same blogger writes a roundup of local photographers and links to five different businesses, and every single link reads “click here,” none of those links are doing any topical work at all. Descriptive, varied anchor text is what separates a helpful citation from a wasted one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is exact-match anchor text still good for SEO?
In small doses, yes. Used as the majority of your link profile, it can look manipulative to Google and hurt more than it helps. A natural mix of branded, naked URL, and partial-match anchor text is safer.
What’s the best anchor text for internal links?
Descriptive text that tells the reader exactly what the linked page covers. Avoid generic phrases like “click here” or “read more,” since they carry no topical signal for search engines or AI systems.
Do link exchanges with matching anchor text still work?
No. Reciprocal links using identical exact-match anchor text create an unnatural pattern that Google’s ranking systems are specifically built to detect and discount.
Does anchor text matter for AI search engines like ChatGPT?
Yes, though differently than for Google. AI systems use the text and context around a link to judge what a page is about and whether it’s worth citing. Descriptive anchor text gives them that context; vague anchor text doesn’t.
What anchor text should I ask for when someone links to my site?
Your business name (branded anchor text) is the safest default. It reads naturally, builds brand association, and carries no over-optimization risk.
