What is Anchor Text?
The clickable words of a link, telling engines what the target is about. Descriptive anchors help; exact-match anchors at scale invite manipulation scrutiny.
Related terms
Exact Match Anchor
Anchor text identical to the target keyword. Internally it correlates with stronger traffic, but template-wide repetition across the web reads as over-optimization.
Anchor Text Distribution
The mix of branded, exact-match, partial, and generic anchors pointing at a page. Natural profiles skew branded and varied; heavy exact-match skew flags manipulation.
Internal Link
A link between pages on the same site, guiding discovery and distributing relevance. Controlled tests show deliberate internal-link changes lifting organic traffic 5–25%, and underlinked priority pages are a standard audit finding.
Off-Page SEO
Everything that builds a site’s reputation elsewhere: backlinks, mentions, reviews, and digital PR. Off-page signals validate what on-page content claims about expertise.
Referring Domain
A unique site linking to you. Domain diversity matters more than raw link counts: 100 links from one site look like one relationship, not 100 votes.
Link Equity
The ranking value passed through a link, shaped by the source’s authority, relevance, and number of outbound links. Internal links distribute equity; external links earn it.