Anchor text is the part of a link that a reader sees and clicks. In <a href="https://example.net">best slots bonus</a> the anchor text is “best slots bonus”. Search engines read it as a short description of the page being linked to, which makes it one of the signals they use to understand the destination.
Why it matters
For a site owner, anchor text matters for two reasons. It tells readers what to expect when they click, and it is often the clearest clue that a link was not put there by you. Injected spam links usually carry commercial anchors, such as the name of a drug, a casino or a loan, that have nothing to do with the page around them. A link with anchor text that your author would never have written is worth a second look.
<a href="https://example.net">best slots bonus</a> <!-- anchor text: best slots bonus -->How Link Signals records it
Link Signals records up to 120 characters of the link’s text, and falls back to an image’s alt text when the link wraps an image. If the same destination is linked several times on a page, the first anchor found is kept. The anchor text appears in the detail panel of a finding and in the CSV, in a column of its own.
It is also passed, with the page’s title, heading and description, to the check that decides whether the destination fits the page. That is how a link to a pharmacy from a page about gardening can be recognised as out of context. If the link is hidden or only shown to search engines, that is noted alongside it.
Common misunderstandings
- Generic anchors such as “click here” or “source” are not treated as evidence of spam. They say nothing about the destination, so the destination is judged on its own.
- Some links have no visible anchor at all, for example an icon with no alt text. The anchor field is then empty, which is not a fault.
- A harmless-looking anchor does not make a link safe. A hidden link can use perfectly ordinary words.
To locate a finding, view the source of the page in Found on and search for its anchor text; see how to read your report.
Questions
Why does the report show different text from the page?
The report keeps the first 120 characters of the text inside the link tag, with spacing tidied. A link built from an image shows the image’s alt text instead.
Can I search my site for an anchor?
Yes. Copy the anchor from the report or the CSV export and search the page source for it.
Run a scan and find where these show up on your own site.
