Anchor Text
Anchor text is the visible, clickable wording of a link. Search engines read it as a short description of the destination, so it influences what the linked page is understood to be about. It also tells human readers what to expect before clicking.
Why it matters for your rankings
Anchor text is one of the oldest and still one of the strongest relevance signals, because it is a description written by someone other than the page's owner. That third-party quality is exactly why Google weights it.
It cuts both ways. Natural link profiles contain a messy mix of branded anchors, bare URLs and phrases like 'this guide'. Profiles built through paid placements tend to be suspiciously tidy, with the same commercial phrase repeated across dozens of domains. That pattern is straightforward for Google to detect and is a common trigger for link-related penalties. Internally, anchor text is entirely under your control and usually wasted: sites link to critical pages with 'click here' or 'learn more' and pass no topical signal at all.
How to check it on your site
Export your inbound anchors
In Ahrefs or Semrush open the Anchors report for your domain. Sort by frequency and look for any exact-match commercial phrase making up an unusually large share.
Compare against competitors
Run the same report for two competitors who rank well. Their distribution shows what normal looks like in your niche.
Audit your internal anchors
Crawl the site and export all internal links with their anchor text. Count how many say 'here', 'this page' or 'read more'.
Rewrite the worst offenders
Change generic internal anchors to describe the destination, without repeating the identical phrase on every page.