Anchor text: link words that say where a link goes

Anchor text is the visible, clickable text of a link: in <a href="https://example.com/ghost-peppers">ghost peppers</a>, it is "ghost peppers". Google describes good anchor text as "descriptive, reasonably concise, and relevant to the page that it's on and to the page it links to." It is one of the on-page signals that connect pages.

What anchor text is

Anchor text is the part of a link a reader sees and clicks. Google's link documentation, last updated on 2025-12-10 and checked on 2026-10-12, calls it "the visible text of a link," and adds that "this text tells people and Google something about the page you're linking to."

The anchor text sits between the opening and closing tags of an <a> element. Google's own example of a good link:

<a href="https://example.com/ghost-peppers">ghost peppers</a>

The same documentation shows the bad case: a link with no text at all, which tells neither readers nor Google anything about where it leads.

Why it matters

Anchor text matters because it is how both readers and search engines learn what is on the other side of a link before following it. Google says links are "a signal when determining the relevancy of pages and to find new pages to crawl," and that "the better your anchor text, the easier it is for people to navigate your site and for Google to understand what the page you're linking to is about."

For a reader, the effect is direct. Someone scanning a page often reads only the links, and a screen reader can list all the links on a page out of context. A list of "click here, click here, read more" tells them nothing.

What makes it good

Google's guidance sets three tests: descriptive, reasonably concise and relevant to both pages.

• Descriptive

  The words name what the reader will find. Google's "better" example: "For a full list of cheese available for purchase, see the list of cheese types," with "list of cheese types" as the link.

• Reasonably concise

  A few words, not a sentence. Google's example of a "weirdly long" anchor runs a whole clause into the link; the fix keeps only the words that name the target.

• Relevant to both pages

  The link makes sense in the sentence it sits in and describes the page it points to.

Google offers a simple check: "Try reading only the anchor text (out of context) and check if it's specific enough to make sense by itself. If you don't know what the page could be about, you need more descriptive anchor text."

What to avoid

• Generic phrases

  Google lists "Click here," "Read more," "website" and "article" as bad anchor text: they could point anywhere.

• Keyword stuffing

  Google asks you to "resist the urge to cram every keyword that's related to the page that you're linking to," noting that keyword stuffing "is a violation of our spam policies." A link written for a search engine rather than a reader usually reads badly to both.

• Links side by side

  Google advises: "Don't chain up links next to each other; it's harder for your readers to distinguish between links, and you lose surrounding text for each link."

• Empty links

  A link with no text, or an icon with no label, leaves the anchor blank. As a fallback, Google can use a title attribute, but a real text label is the reliable choice.

When the link is an image

When an image is the whole link, its alt text becomes the anchor text. Google's documentation says: "For images as links, Google uses the alt attribute of the img element as anchor text, so be sure to add descriptive alt text to your images." For such images, the alt text should describe where the link goes; the alt text page covers how to write it.

Links you do not write

Anchor text on other sites that link to yours is chosen by those sites, not by you. It is worth reading, because it shows how others describe your pages, but it is not something to engineer: links bought or arranged for their anchor text fall under the same spam policies as keyword stuffing. The part you control is the anchor text of links within your own site and the links you place to others.

Buttons, menus and icons

Not every link sits in a sentence. Navigation menus, buttons and icons are links too, and their text is their anchor text. A menu item such as "Guides" is fine where the menu itself gives context; a button reading only "Go" or an arrow icon with no label is not.

For icon links, give the link a text label that screen readers and crawlers can read, either visible or hidden for sighted readers. The test is the same as for any anchor: read the label alone and ask whether it says where the link goes. A row of icons labelled "link", "link", "link" fails it as plainly as "click here" does.

The words around the link

Google points out that context counts too: "the words before and after links matter, so pay attention to the sentence as a whole." A short, descriptive anchor inside a sentence that explains why the link is there gives a reader everything they need to decide whether to follow it.

FAQ