Anchor Text
The visible, clickable words in a hyperlink. Anchor text tells both users and search engines what the linked page is about, so it passes topical context along with link equity. It applies to internal links between your own pages and to external backlinks pointing to you from other sites.
Why It Matters
Descriptive anchor text helps search engines associate target pages with relevant terms and helps users predict where a link leads. Internal anchor text is a strong, fully controllable relevance signal for steering crawlers toward your priority pages.
Common Mistake
Using generic anchors like 'click here' or 'read more' that carry no context, or over-optimizing external anchors with exact-match keywords, which can look manipulative and trigger link-spam scrutiny.