Website Glossary · Letter A
What Is Anchor Text?
Anchor text is the visible, clickable wording of a link on a web page. It tells a reader where the link goes, and it tells search engines what the destination page is about.
What Anchor Text Is and Why It Has a Name
Every link on the internet has two halves. There is the address, which is where the link goes, and there is the wording, which is what you actually see and click. That visible wording is the anchor text.
You already recognize it. It is the blue underlined phrase in the middle of a sentence. Sometimes it says something useful like "see our pricing." Sometimes it says "click here," which says nothing at all. The address behind both could be identical. The experience of reading them is not.
The reason this small thing has a name is that it is doing two jobs for two different audiences. A person reads it and decides whether the link is worth clicking. A search engine reads it and treats it as a short description of whatever page it points to. One phrase, two readers, both paying attention.
These two get mixed up constantly. Anchor text is the visible wording of any link. An anchor link is a specific kind of link that jumps to a section within the same page. Every link has anchor text. Only some links are anchor links.
Why It Matters for a Local Business
Start with the version you can hear, because it makes the whole thing obvious.
A screen reader has a feature where it reads out every link on a page as a list, so somebody can find what they need without listening to the entire page. Here is what that list sounds like on two different websites.
That left column is a real website somewhere, and somebody is trying to hire that business right now and cannot figure out how. It is also one of the most common findings in an accessibility review, sitting right alongside missing alt text.
Sighted visitors are doing a faster version of the same thing. Nobody reads a web page start to finish. They scan, and links catch the eye because they are colored and underlined. A link that says "see our pricing" answers a question during the scan. A link that says "click here" makes them stop and read the surrounding sentence to figure out what it is.
The Search Engine Side, and Where It Gets Dangerous
Search engines read anchor text as a description of the destination. If a dozen sites link to your page using wording about emergency plumbing, that is a strong signal about what your page covers. The wording is essentially a vote with a label attached.
Which is exactly why it became a target. Once people understood that the wording carried weight, an entire industry grew around manufacturing it. Buy a hundred links, make every one say "best plumber Riverhead," and watch the rankings move.
That worked for a while. It does not anymore, and the wreckage is still sitting on a lot of small business websites.
- The same exact phrase on every link. Real writing varies because sentences vary. Identical wording forty times is a fingerprint, not a coincidence.
- Wording that is not English. "Plumber Riverhead NY emergency service" is not a phrase a person would write inside a sentence.
- Links jammed into a footer. Forty town names linked at the bottom of every page, most of them places the business does not serve.
- Wording that lies about the destination. A link saying free estimate that opens a sales page is a broken promise, and both people and machines notice.
Most owners reading that list did not do any of it. An agency did, years ago, and got paid for it. The links are still there and they still look exactly like what they are, which is one of the more common inherited causes of an algorithmic penalty on a small business site.
How to Write It Well
Here is the entire technique. Write the sentence you would write anyway, then link the words that describe where you are sending someone.
Not "for pricing information, click here." Just "here is our pricing," with the words "our pricing" carrying the link. The sentence already contained the description. You did not have to add anything, you only had to link the right part of it.
The Rules Worth Following
- Name the destination. The words should tell somebody where they land before they click.
- A few words, not one and not twenty. One word is usually too vague. A whole sentence as a link is hard to scan and worse to hear.
- Let it vary naturally. Different sentences call for different wording. Forcing one phrase everywhere is the thing that looks manufactured.
- Keep the promise. If the words say pricing, the page had better be pricing.
- Never use click here. It describes the action, which the visitor already understood, instead of the destination, which they did not.
- Read the link alone. If the words make no sense pulled out of the sentence, rewrite them until they do.
That last rule is the whole test in one move. A screen reader will read your link out of context, and a person scanning will see it out of context too. Cover the sentence around it and read just the blue words. If you cannot tell where it goes, neither can they.
What makes this satisfying is that there is no tension between the two audiences. The wording that helps a blind visitor navigate is the same wording that tells a search engine what the page is about. Write it honestly and both are served, which is the same pattern that runs through alt text and every other place where describing something plainly turns out to be the whole strategy.
How Cannone Marketing Handles This for Every Client
Every link on every site says where it goes. No click here, no read more, no learn more sitting alone with nothing around it. The wording names the destination so a visitor scanning the page knows what they are about to get and a screen reader user hears a list they can actually use.
No manufactured phrases repeated across the site to chase a ranking. No footer stuffed with town names the business does not serve. The links are the ones a real page needs, worded the way a person would write them, which is the version that stays safe when the rules tighten. When you want a new link added or reworded, one message handles it under Worry-Free Support.
The cost is $199 one time to set it up and $49 per month after that. No contracts. You work directly with Mike Cannone on every request, with no middlemen and no account managers.
Related Terms
Common Questions About Anchor Text
Why is click here considered bad anchor text?
Because it describes the action instead of the destination. A screen reader user listening to a list of links hears click here repeated over and over with no way to tell them apart. A search engine gets no information about what the linked page contains. Wording that names the destination solves both problems at once.
Should a business use the same anchor text for every link to a page?
No. Repeating an identical phrase for every link to the same page reads as manufactured rather than natural. Real writing varies, because different sentences call for different wording. Describing the destination accurately in whatever words fit the sentence is both more natural and safer.
Does anchor text affect how a business ranks on Google?
It is one of the signals search engines use to understand what a page is about, both for links within a site and links from other sites. It is not a lever a business can pull on its own, and trying to control it aggressively is a well known way to create problems. Accurate descriptive wording is the version that helps.
How long should anchor text be?
Long enough to describe the destination and short enough to read cleanly, usually a few words. A single word is often too vague to mean anything. An entire sentence turned into a link is hard to scan and awkward to hear read aloud. A short descriptive phrase inside a normal sentence works best.
Is anchor text the same thing as an anchor link?
No, despite the similar names. Anchor text is the visible wording of any link, meaning the words a person clicks. An anchor link is a specific type of link that jumps to a section within the same page. Every link has anchor text, and only some links are anchor links.
Every Link Says Where It Goes
No click here, no read more, no stuffed footers full of towns you do not serve. Just honest wording that helps a visitor scan, helps a screen reader user navigate, and tells Google the truth. Request a free custom homepage demo and see your site built for you within 24 hours.
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