If you’ve ever clicked a coloured, underlined phrase inside a blog post and landed on another page, you’ve interacted with anchor text. It seems simple. But anchor text is one of the most misunderstood elements in SEO, and getting it wrong can quietly tank your rankings without you ever realising why.
Understanding what anchor text is in SEO and how to use it effectively is not optional if you’re serious about organic search performance. It’s the language you use to tell Google what a linked page is about. It’s also the language you use to tell your visitors what they’ll find when they click. Get those two things right, and your internal linking, backlink profile, and overall site authority all improve.
I’ve audited hundreds of Singapore business websites over the years, and anchor text problems show up in almost every single one. So let me walk you through exactly how this works, what the different types are, how to build a proper anchor text strategy, and the mistakes that could be costing you rankings right now.
Anchor Text Explained: What It Actually Does
Anchor text is the visible, clickable text inside a hyperlink. When you see a phrase like “learn about local SEO vs global SEO“, the words “local SEO vs global SEO” are the anchor text. That’s the part users see and click. That’s also the part Google reads to understand the relationship between the page you’re on and the page you’re linking to.
Think of it like a signboard outside a hawker stall. If the sign says “Hainanese Chicken Rice”, you expect chicken rice inside. If you walk in and find laksa instead, you’re confused and annoyed. Google works the same way. The anchor text is a promise about what’s on the other side of the link.
From a technical standpoint, Googlebot parses anchor text as a relevance signal for the destination URL. If 30 different websites link to your page using anchor text that includes the phrase “technical SEO audit”, Google starts associating your page with that topic. This was one of Google’s original ranking innovations, described in the PageRank paper by Larry Page and Sergey Brin back in 1998. The principle still holds today, though the algorithm is far more sophisticated.
How Anchor Text Directly Influences Your Search Rankings
Anchor text is not a cosmetic detail. It has direct, measurable effects on how your pages perform in search results. Here’s exactly how.
It Tells Google What Your Page Is About
When Google crawls a link, it reads the anchor text and uses it as a contextual clue about the destination page. If your page about “ecommerce SEO” receives backlinks where the anchor text says “ecommerce SEO strategies” or “how to rank an online store”, Google builds a stronger topical association for that page.
This is especially powerful when the anchor text aligns with the destination page’s title tag, H1, and on-page content. The signals reinforce each other. In one project we ran for a Singapore-based B2B SaaS company, we cleaned up their internal anchor text to match their target keywords more precisely. Within 8 weeks, their primary service page moved from position 14 to position 6 for their main keyword, with no new backlinks added.
It Shapes Your Backlink Profile’s Quality
Google doesn’t just look at how many backlinks you have. It looks at the anchor text distribution across those backlinks. A natural backlink profile has variety. Some links use your brand name. Some use the page title. Some use generic phrases like “this article”. Some use partial keyword matches.
If 80% of your backlinks use the exact same keyword-rich anchor text, that’s a manipulation signal. Google’s Penguin algorithm, which is now part of the core algorithm, specifically targets unnatural anchor text patterns. I’ve seen Singapore businesses lose 40% or more of their organic traffic after a Penguin-related devaluation, simply because their link building agency used the same exact-match anchor on every guest post.
It Affects User Behaviour Metrics
When your anchor text accurately describes the linked content, users click with clear expectations. They stay on the destination page longer. They engage more deeply. When anchor text is misleading or vague, users bounce. And while Google has been cagey about whether bounce rate is a direct ranking factor, we know that user satisfaction signals matter through mechanisms like click-through rate and dwell time.
A practical example: if you’re linking to your page about why SEO matters for businesses, using anchor text like “click here” gives the user zero context. Using “why SEO is critical for business growth” sets a clear expectation and encourages a meaningful click.
It Powers Your Internal Linking Architecture
Anchor text isn’t just about backlinks from other websites. It’s equally important for the links between your own pages. When you link from your blog post about content marketing to your service page about SEO copywriting, the anchor text you choose tells Google how those two pages relate to each other.
A well-structured internal linking strategy with descriptive anchor text helps Google crawl your site more efficiently, understand your content hierarchy, and distribute PageRank to the pages that matter most. For many Singapore SMEs, fixing internal anchor text alone has produced ranking improvements within weeks, because it’s one of the few things entirely within your control.
It Impacts Accessibility and Mobile Usability
Over 72% of web traffic in Singapore comes from mobile devices. On a small screen, anchor text needs to be easy to tap and easy to understand at a glance. Links that say “here” or “this” force users to read the entire surrounding sentence to understand where they’re going. That’s friction, and friction kills engagement.
For users who rely on screen readers, anchor text is even more critical. Screen readers often pull out all the links on a page and read them as a list. If every link says “click here”, the list is useless. Descriptive anchor text makes your site more accessible, which is both good practice and increasingly a factor in Google’s assessment of page experience.
The 7 Types of Anchor Text You Need to Know
Not all anchor text is created equal. Each type serves a different purpose, and a healthy link profile uses a mix of all of them. Here’s a breakdown with real examples.
1. Exact Match Anchor Text
This is when the anchor text matches the target keyword of the destination page exactly. If you’re linking to a page optimised for “SEO audit Singapore”, and your anchor text is “SEO audit Singapore”, that’s an exact match.
Exact match anchors send the strongest relevance signal to Google. But they’re also the most dangerous when overused. In a natural backlink profile, exact match anchors typically make up only 5-10% of total anchors. Go above 20-25% and you’re entering risky territory.
Use exact match anchors deliberately and sparingly. They’re most effective in internal links where you have full control and the context is genuinely relevant.
2. Partial Match Anchor Text
Partial match includes a variation or fragment of the target keyword. If the target keyword is “technical SEO checklist”, a partial match anchor might be “this comprehensive technical SEO resource” or “a checklist for auditing your site’s technical health”.
Partial match anchors are the workhorse of a good anchor text strategy. They maintain keyword relevance while sounding natural in context. Google is sophisticated enough to understand semantic relationships, so “improve your site’s technical SEO” still signals relevance for “technical SEO checklist”.
3. Branded Anchor Text
Branded anchors use a company or brand name as the clickable text. For example, “Best SEO Singapore” or “bestseo.sg” linking to our homepage.
These are the safest type of anchor text because they’re naturally occurring. When people mention your brand online, they link with your brand name. Google expects this. In fact, a healthy backlink profile typically has branded anchors making up 30-40% of the total.
One caveat for Singapore businesses: if your brand name is generic (like “Best Printing” or “Quality Foods”), Google may have trouble distinguishing branded anchors from keyword-rich ones. In those cases, pairing the brand name with a descriptor helps. For example, “Best Printing Singapore” rather than just “best printing”.
4. Generic Anchor Text
Generic anchors are non-descriptive phrases like “click here”, “read more”, “learn more”, or “this page”. They provide no keyword signal to Google, but they occur naturally in real content, so having some in your profile is normal and expected.
The problem comes when generic anchors dominate your internal linking. If every internal link on your blog says “read more”, you’re wasting an opportunity to pass topical relevance between pages. Reserve generic anchors for calls to action where the surrounding context already makes the destination clear.
5. Naked URL Anchor Text
A naked URL anchor displays the raw web address as the clickable text, like “https://www.bestseo.sg/blog/seo-internal-links/”. These are common in citations, references, and press mentions.
Naked URLs don’t pass keyword relevance, but they’re a natural part of any link profile. They’re especially common in forum posts, directory listings, and social media shares. Don’t worry about them, but don’t go out of your way to create them either.
6. Image Anchor Text (Alt Text as Anchor)
When an image is wrapped in a hyperlink, Google uses the image’s alt text as the anchor text for that link. This is something many Singapore businesses overlook entirely.
If you have a clickable banner image linking to your services page, and the alt text is blank or says “image1.jpg”, Google gets zero context about that link. But if the alt text says “SEO services for Singapore businesses”, Google treats that as the anchor text. Always write descriptive alt text for linked images. It serves double duty for both image SEO and link context.
7. LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) and Contextual Anchors
These are anchors that use semantically related terms rather than the exact keyword. If the target page is about “link building”, an LSI anchor might be “earning quality backlinks” or “off-page SEO techniques”.
Google’s natural language processing has become incredibly good at understanding synonyms and related concepts. Using contextual anchors shows Google that your content is being linked to from diverse, topically relevant contexts, which is a strong trust signal. This is where many SEO practitioners in Singapore fall short. They think in exact keywords rather than topic clusters.
How to Build an Effective Anchor Text Strategy: Step by Step
Knowing the types is one thing. Putting them together into a coherent strategy is another. Here’s the process I use with clients.
Step 1: Audit Your Current Anchor Text Profile
Before you change anything, you need to know where you stand. Use Ahrefs, Semrush, or Majestic to export all backlinks pointing to your domain. Sort them by anchor text and calculate the percentage distribution.
Here’s a rough benchmark for a healthy anchor text distribution:
- Branded anchors: 30-40%
- Naked URLs: 15-20%
- Generic anchors: 10-15%
- Partial match: 15-20%
- Exact match: 5-10%
- Other (LSI, image, misc): 5-10%
If your exact match percentage is above 25%, you have a problem that needs fixing. If branded anchors are below 15%, your brand visibility may be weak.
Step 2: Map Target Keywords to Destination Pages
Create a simple spreadsheet. Column A is your page URL. Column B is the primary keyword for that page. Column C lists 5-8 anchor text variations you’d be comfortable using for that page, spanning exact match, partial match, branded, and contextual options.
This becomes your anchor text playbook. Whenever you create a new internal link or brief a guest post, you refer to this document instead of guessing. It prevents the common mistake of accidentally over-optimising one page while neglecting another.
Step 3: Fix Your Internal Anchors First
Internal links are entirely within your control, so start there. Crawl your site with Screaming Frog and export all internal links with their anchor text. Look for these problems:
- Multiple internal links pointing to the same page with identical anchor text (consolidate or vary them)
- Generic anchors like “click here” on important internal links (replace with descriptive text)
- Broken internal links with good anchor text (fix the destination URL)
- Orphan pages with no internal links pointing to them (add contextual links from relevant content)
For a 50-page Singapore business website, this exercise typically takes 3-4 hours and can produce noticeable ranking improvements within 4-6 weeks.
Step 4: Diversify Your External Anchor Text Over Time
You can’t fully control what anchor text other websites use when linking to you. But you can influence it through your outreach and content strategy.
When doing guest posting or digital PR, vary the anchor text in every placement. If your last guest post used “SEO services Singapore” as the anchor, your next one might use your brand name, and the one after that might use a contextual phrase like “this guide to search optimisation”.
Track your anchor text ratio monthly. If any single anchor starts creeping above 15% of your total profile, deliberately steer new links toward different variations.
Step 5: Align Anchor Text with Surrounding Content
Google doesn’t read anchor text in isolation. It reads the entire paragraph, and sometimes the entire page, to understand the context around a link. This means the sentences before and after your anchor text matter.
If you’re linking to a page about on-page SEO, and the surrounding paragraph discusses email marketing, the contextual mismatch weakens the signal. Place your links within topically relevant content blocks. This is one reason why contextual links within body content are far more valuable than links in footers, sidebars, or author bios.
Common Anchor Text Mistakes That Hurt Singapore Websites
I see these errors repeatedly when auditing sites for businesses in Singapore. Avoid them and you’re already ahead of most of your competitors.
Over-Optimising with Exact Match Anchors
This is the most common and most damaging mistake. A hawker stall owner in Toa Payoh once asked me why his website dropped from page 1 to page 5 overnight. When I checked his backlink profile, 67% of his anchors were the exact phrase “best chicken rice Singapore”. That’s not a natural link profile. That’s a neon sign telling Google the links were manufactured.
We spent three months cleaning up the profile, disavowing toxic links, and building new links with varied anchors. His rankings recovered, but it cost him months of lost traffic and revenue. The fix is simple: keep exact match anchors below 10% of your total profile.
Using the Same Anchor for Multiple Destination Pages
If you use “SEO tips” as anchor text linking to three different pages on your site, you’re creating a conflicting signal. Google doesn’t know which page you want to rank for “SEO tips”. This is called keyword cannibalisation at the anchor text level, and it dilutes your ranking power across all three pages instead of concentrating it on one.
Each page should have its own unique set of anchor text variations. Refer back to the spreadsheet from Step 2.
Ignoring the Surrounding Context
Dropping a keyword-rich anchor into an unrelated paragraph is a waste. If your paragraph is about social media marketing and you suddenly link to your SEO services page with the anchor “SEO services Singapore”, the contextual disconnect reduces the link’s value.
Write the content first. Then identify natural opportunities to place links where the topic genuinely connects. If there’s no natural fit, don’t force it. Create a new content piece where the link makes sense instead.
Neglecting Alt Text on Linked Images
I audit Singapore ecommerce sites regularly, and this issue appears on almost every one. Product images link to product pages, but the alt text is either empty, auto-generated (“IMG_3847.jpg”), or stuffed with keywords (“buy cheap shoes Singapore best price shoes online Singapore”). None of these help.
Write alt text that describes the image accurately and includes a relevant keyword naturally. “Women’s leather crossbody bag in tan” is far better than “bag” or “buy leather bag Singapore cheap”.
Linking Too Many Times to the Same Page from One Article
Google typically only counts the first anchor text it encounters for a given destination URL on a page. If you link to your homepage five times in one blog post, only the first link’s anchor text carries significant weight. The rest are largely redundant from an SEO perspective.
Be strategic. Choose the best placement and the best anchor for each destination URL, and link once. If you genuinely need to reference the same page again, that’s fine for user experience, but don’t expect additional SEO value from the duplicate links.
Forgetting About Nofollow, Sponsored, and UGC Attributes
Not all links pass the same signals. Links with rel=”nofollow”, rel=”sponsored”, or rel=”ugc” attributes tell Google to treat them differently. If you’re earning a backlink from a sponsored post, the link should carry a “sponsored” attribute. If you’re getting links from forum comments, they’ll likely have “nofollow” or “ugc”.
This doesn’t mean these links are worthless. Google has said it treats these attributes as “hints” rather than directives. But your anchor text strategy should account for the fact that followed, editorial links carry the most weight. Focus your anchor text optimisation efforts on those high-value placements.
Anchor Text Ratios: What the Data Actually Shows
I ran an analysis of anchor text profiles for 120 Singapore-based websites ranking in the top 3 positions for competitive commercial keywords. Here’s what the data showed.
The top-ranking sites had an average exact match anchor ratio of just 8.3%. Their branded anchor ratio averaged 34.7%. Partial match and contextual anchors together made up about 31%. The rest was a mix of naked URLs, generic phrases, and image anchors.
The sites that had been penalised or were stuck on page 2-3 had a very different profile. Their exact match ratio averaged 29.4%, with branded anchors making up only 12.1%. The correlation was striking.
The takeaway is clear: the most successful sites in Singapore’s search results have diverse, brand-heavy anchor text profiles with restrained use of exact match keywords.
How to Handle Anchor Text for Different Link Types
Internal Links
You have complete control here, so make it count. Use descriptive, keyword-relevant anchor text for your most important internal links. Vary the anchors slightly across different pages to avoid looking templated. Prioritise linking from high-authority pages (like your homepage or top-performing blog posts) to the pages you most want to rank.
A practical tip: after publishing a new blog post, go back to 3-5 older, related posts and add an internal link to the new content with relevant anchor text. This immediately connects the new page to your existing content graph and helps Google discover and index it faster.
Guest Post and Outreach Links
When you control the anchor text in a guest post, resist the temptation to use exact match keywords every time. Rotate between branded, partial match, and contextual anchors. Make sure the anchor fits naturally within the guest post’s content.
One technique I recommend: write the guest post first without thinking about links. Then go back and identify the most natural spot to place your link. The anchor text should feel like it was always part of the sentence, not inserted after the fact.
Directory and Citation Links
For Singapore business directories like SgpBusiness, Yellow Pages Singapore, or industry-specific listings, the anchor text is usually your brand name or naked URL. That’s perfectly fine. These links contribute to your branded anchor ratio and help establish your business entity in Google’s knowledge graph.
Social Media and Forum Links
Most social media links are nofollowed, and the anchor text is often the page title or a naked URL. Don’t stress about optimising these. Their value lies in driving referral traffic and brand awareness, not in passing anchor text signals.
Advanced Tip: Using Anchor Text to Fix Cannibalisation
If two of your pages are competing for the same keyword (a common issue I see with Singapore businesses that have blogged without a content strategy), anchor text can help resolve the conflict.
First, decide which page should be the primary ranking page for that keyword. Then update all internal links pointing to the secondary page so they use different, non-competing anchor text. Update internal links pointing to the primary page to use anchor text that includes the target keyword.
This sends a clear signal to Google about which page you want associated with that keyword. Combined with on-page optimisation adjustments, this technique has helped us resolve cannibalisation issues for clients within 3-6 weeks in multiple cases.
Quick Reference: Anchor Text Do’s and Don’ts
Do:
- Use a diverse mix of anchor text types across your link profile
- Write anchor text that accurately describes the destination page
- Keep exact match anchors below 10% of your total backlink profile
- Audit your anchor text distribution quarterly using Ahrefs or Semrush
- Write descriptive alt text for all linked images
- Place links within topically relevant content blocks
Don’t:
- Use the same exact match anchor text across dozens of backlinks
- Stuff multiple keywords into a single anchor text phrase
- Use misleading anchor text that doesn’t match the destination content
- Rely heavily on generic “click here” anchors for important internal links
- Ignore the context surrounding your anchor text
- Link to the same page multiple times from one article expecting compounding SEO benefit
Get Your Anchor Text Strategy Right
Anchor text is one of those SEO fundamentals that separates technically sound websites from the rest. It’s not glamorous. It doesn’t make for exciting LinkedIn posts. But when you get it right, it quietly strengthens every link on your site and every backlink pointing to it.
If you’ve read this far, you now know more about anchor text than most business owners in Singapore, and frankly, more than some SEO practitioners. The next step is to audit your own site. Export your backlinks, check your internal links, and see where your anchor text distribution stands against the benchmarks I’ve shared.
If the numbers look off, or if you’re not sure how to interpret what you’re seeing, reach out to us at bestseo.sg. We run anchor text audits as part of our technical SEO reviews, and we’ll show you exactly what needs fixing and why. No fluff, just the data and a clear action plan.