Anchor text — The clickable words of a link

The visible, clickable words of a link, which tell people and search engines what the linked page is about.

What it means

Anchor text is the part of a link you can actually click. On most websites it shows up as blue or underlined words. If a sentence says "see our cold coffee menu" and those three words take you to another page, then "cold coffee menu" is the anchor text. It works like a label telling readers and search engines what is on the other side.

How it works

When Google crawls a page and finds a link, it reads the anchor text as a clue about the linked page's topic. Good anchor text is descriptive: it names the thing the reader will get. Vague anchors like "click here" or "read more" give no clue. But if every link to a page uses the same keyword-stuffed phrase, it can look manipulative. The best anchors read naturally inside the sentence and vary a little.

A simple example

Imagine a Pune café blog with a post about monsoon specials. Inside it, the owner writes: "Pair your chai with our homemade vada pav." Those words link to the snacks page. Readers know what to expect, and Google gets a clear signal about the snacks page. Compare that with "For snacks, click here", which tells nobody anything useful.

Why it matters

Anchor text helps people decide whether a link is worth clicking. It also helps search engines understand how your pages connect and what each one covers. People using screen readers often jump from link to link, so clear anchors make your site more accessible too.

Beginner tips

Describe the destination in a few natural words, such as "beginner SEO course fees".
Keep anchors short; a whole sentence turned into a link is hard to scan.
Vary your wording rather than repeating one exact keyword everywhere.
Common mistake: using "click here" or "this link" as anchor text, which wastes the chance to explain the page.