Anchor Text SEO: Types, Examples and Best Practices

Anchor text is the visible, clickable words of a link, and Google uses it to understand what the linked page is about. Good anchor text SEO means writing anchors that are descriptive, reasonably short and relevant to both pages, while avoiding keyword stuffing and the "optimized anchor text" Google lists as link spam.

This guide is for e-commerce and Shopify teams who write product copy, blog posts and collection pages, and for anyone reviewing a backlink profile. You'll get the main types of anchor text with examples, what Google's own documentation says, how internal and external anchors differ, an example anchor mix you can compare against, and a step-by-step audit you can run this week with two free tools.

What is anchor text in SEO?

Anchor text is the text inside an <a href> element. In the HTML <a href="/collections/soy-candles">soy candles</a>, the anchor text is "soy candles". Readers use it to decide whether to click. Search engines use it as a short description of the destination page, written by someone other than the page itself.

Google's link best practices describe good anchor text as descriptive, reasonably concise and relevant to the page it sits on and the page it links to. The same page offers a simple test: read the anchor text on its own, out of context, and check whether it still makes sense. "Click here" fails that test. "Our guide to washing linen sheets" passes.

Why anchor text still matters

• It is a relevance signal. Anchors tell Google what a page covers, which helps the right page rank for the right query.
• It shapes clicks. A clear anchor sets an expectation, so the visitor who clicks is more likely to want what they find.
• It helps accessibility. Screen reader users often jump from link to link, hearing only the anchors. A page full of "read more" links is useless to them.
• It can be abused. Because anchors carry meaning, people try to manipulate them, and Google's spam policies call this out directly.

Where Google reads anchor text from

Google can reliably follow links only when they use an <a> element with an href attribute. Links built from a span or an onclick event without an href may not be parsed at all. For an image link, the image's alt attribute acts as the anchor text, so a linked product photo with no alt text is an empty anchor. If an <a> element has no text, Google may fall back to its title attribute. If your theme inserts links with JavaScript, Google recommends checking the rendered HTML with the URL Inspection tool in Search Console to confirm the anchor text is there.

Types of anchor text, with examples

SEO tools and audits group anchors into a handful of types. The names are industry conventions, not Google terms, but they make it easy to see patterns. The examples below assume a store selling soy candles that links to its collection page at /collections/soy-candles, with a target keyword of "soy candles".

Wickhaven is a made-up brand used only to illustrate the categories.

Which types to use where

Exact match anchors are the most descriptive and the most abused. On your own site they are often the clearest option, for example a menu link labeled "Soy candles". In backlinks from other sites, a high share of exact-match anchors is the classic sign of links that someone arranged rather than earned.

Partial match anchors are usually the best default for editorial links inside body copy. They read like normal language and still describe the page well.

Branded and naked URL anchors are what most people use when they link to a business they like. They dominate healthy backlink profiles because nobody coordinates them.

Generic anchors are not a penalty risk, but they waste the link. Google's documentation names "Click here" and "Read more" as examples to avoid. Rewrite them whenever you control the text.

Image anchors depend entirely on alt text. Product grids, logo links and banner links are the usual places to find empty image anchors on a Shopify store.

What Google says about anchor text

Google publishes two documents that cover anchor text directly: the link best practices page (last updated December 10, 2025) and the link spam section of its spam policies (last updated August 28, 2026). Together they give you clear rules.

Do this

• Write anchors that are descriptive, reasonably concise and relevant to both pages.
• Give the surrounding sentence context too. Google says the words around a link also help, so write a sentence that explains why the link is there.
• Make sure every page you care about is linked from at least one other page on your site.
• Use descriptive alt text on linked images.

Don't do this

• Don't write anchors that are, in Google's words, "weirdly long". Trim them to the words that describe the page.
• Don't cram keywords into anchors. Google's link documentation calls keyword stuffing a violation of its spam policies.
• Don't chain several links side by side with no text between them, which makes each one harder to read and understand.
• Don't use "optimized anchor text" in articles, guest posts or press releases on other sites. Google's spam policies list this as an example of link spam.
• Don't place keyword-rich links in widgets or footers that get distributed across many sites, or in forum signatures. Both appear in the spam policy's examples.

Internal vs external anchor text

Internal links point from one page on your site to another. External links point to or from other domains. The anchor text rules are the same, but the risk and the level of control are very different.

Internal anchor text on an e-commerce site

Internal links are where you have full control, so this is where anchor text work pays off fastest. A Shopify store usually has four kinds of internal links:

• Navigation and mega menus. Short, exact labels such as "Soy candles" or "Gift sets" are right here. Shoppers scan menus, and short labels match how they think.
• Breadcrumbs. These repeat the collection name. That is fine, because the repetition reflects real structure.
• Body copy on blog posts and buying guides. This is where descriptive, partial-match anchors do the most work, such as "our best-selling soy candles for small spaces".
• Product and collection descriptions. Cross-links like "pair it with the matching wick trimmer" help both shoppers and crawlers find related products.

The most common internal problems are not over-optimization. They are vague anchors ("shop now" pointing at ten different pages), one keyword phrase pointing at two different URLs, which muddies which page should rank, and important pages that have no contextual links at all. A keyword cannibalization check helps you spot the second problem.

External anchor text and backlinks

You can't control most backlink anchors, and you shouldn't try to. Earned links from press, reviews and other websites tend to use your brand name, your URL or a page title. When you do have input, such as a partner page or a podcast show notes page, ask for your brand name or the page title instead of a keyword phrase. Paid placements, sponsorships and affiliate links should carry rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow", which Google's spam policies say makes paid links acceptable. Our guide to dofollow backlinks explains the rel attributes in more detail.

What a natural anchor text mix looks like

There is no official target distribution, and Google has never published one. What you can do is look at your own backlink anchors and ask whether they look like links people chose to give. The chart below is an illustrative example of a healthy profile for a small store, not a benchmark to copy.

In this example, branded and URL anchors make up 60% of the 400 links (240 of 400), and exact-match anchors are 3% (12 of 400). The shape is what matters: brand and URL anchors lead, descriptive anchors follow, and exact-match keyword anchors are a small minority. If your own profile is upside down, with a keyword phrase leading the list, look at where those links came from.

Signs your anchor mix needs attention

How to audit your anchor text, step by step

You can run a full anchor text audit in an afternoon. Start with internal links, because you can fix every one of them yourself.

1. Crawl your site. Run a crawl with a tool such as Screaming Frog and export the inlinks report, which lists every internal link with its source, destination and anchor text.
2. Check coverage first. Upload the export to the Internal Link Checker to find orphan and under-linked pages. A page with no contextual links needs links before it needs better anchors.
3. Review the anchors per page. Run the same export through the Anchor Text Analyzer to see every anchor pointing at each page and flag vague, repetitive or mismatched ones.
4. Fix generic and empty anchors. Rewrite "click here", "learn more" and "shop now" links in body copy. Add alt text to linked images.
5. Resolve conflicts. If the same anchor phrase points at two URLs, choose the page that should rank and update the other links.
6. Add links to priority pages. For your top collections and products, add two or three contextual links from related blog posts and buying guides, using descriptive partial-match anchors.
7. Export your backlink anchors. Pull the referring anchors from Google Search Console's Links report or your backlink tool, and group them into the types in this guide.
8. Investigate outliers. If a commercial keyword leads your backlink anchors, trace where those links came from and whether any were paid without a rel attribute.
9. Recheck after changes. Re-crawl after a month and confirm the fixes are live, especially on templates where an app or theme update can overwrite your edits.

Anchor text best practices for Shopify stores

Write for the sentence, then for the keyword

Write the sentence first, then link the words that best describe the destination. If the anchor only makes sense with the keyword forced in, rewrite the sentence. "Our guide to choosing a candle wick size" beats "candle wick size guide best" every time.

Keep anchors short but complete

Two to six words covers most good anchors. That isn't a Google rule, but it fits Google's advice to be reasonably concise and to avoid anchors that are "weirdly long". The anchor should be the noun phrase that names the page, not the whole sentence.

Vary internal anchors naturally

Different pages will naturally describe the same destination in different ways: "soy candles", "our soy candle collection", "clean-burning soy candles". That variation is normal and helps describe the page from several angles. Don't force it, and don't use a spreadsheet to rotate synonyms.

Link where the reader needs it

Put the link in the paragraph where a reader would actually want to go to that page. A link to a size chart belongs next to the sizing question, not in a list of links at the bottom of the page. Google's advice to link to related resources in context says the same thing.

Don't overdo the number of links

Google says there's no ideal number of links on a page, but that too many is likely a problem. A buying guide with a link in every sentence is harder to read and dilutes the meaning of each anchor.

Be careful with sitewide links

Footers and headers on your own site are normal places for short navigation anchors. The risk is sitewide links on other people's sites, such as a "designed by" footer credit with a keyword anchor, which Google's spam policies list as an example of link spam.

For a wider view of where anchors fit into earning links, read our guide to link building and our explainer on external backlinks.

Common anchor text mistakes and fixes

• "Click here" everywhere. Replace it with a phrase that names the page. This helps readers, screen readers and search engines at once.
• Keyword-only anchors in guest posts. If you contribute an article to another site, link with your brand or a page title. Google names optimized anchors in guest posts as link spam.
• Linking the same phrase to different pages. Pick one destination per topic so your signals point one way.
• Buttons with no text. Icon-only buttons and linked images with empty alt text are empty anchors. Add text or alt text.
• Anchors that overpromise. If the anchor says "free shipping guide" and the page is a product listing, readers bounce. The anchor must match the page.
• JavaScript-only links. Filters, tabs and "load more" buttons that don't use <a href> may hide pages from Google. Use real links for anything you want crawled.

Next steps for your store

Start with what you control. Crawl your site, fix generic and empty anchors on your templates, give every priority collection and product a few descriptive contextual links, and then look at your backlink anchors for anything that looks arranged. Keep your anchors honest descriptions of the page they point to and you'll meet Google's guidance without counting ratios. If you want help prioritizing the internal linking work on a large catalog, our technical SEO team can map it for you, or you can get in touch for a free plan.