What is an anchor link & why is it helpful for SEO?
Written by Simon Cox
Simon (l) and Rachael (r) on a website shoot
In this article:
Why links are essential for my website?
What is an anchor link?
Why are anchor links important?
How do anchor links help with SEO?
What is best practice with anchor links on my website?
Today we’re delving into the world of links — specifically anchor links (all will be revealed!) — and exploring why they matter, especially when it comes to SEO and how visitors experience your website.
This article is from one of our recent Content Corners: Content Corner is your website questions answered; a weekly Q&A on Instagram to help you create great website content that attracts, engages & boosts your SEO.
It's not simply enough to have a website; you need to be creating content that will help your website be found by Google in a search result. We want to ensure that we can answer your questions on blogging, blog topics, structuring blog articles, improving existing blogs & tracking your progress too.
After seeing Wildings Studio's brilliant posts on the importance of blogging, I finally carved out some time this week to sit down and create not one, but two new blogs!
Wildings is a website designer for small business. We are based in Torquay and offer website design for interior designers and garden designers. We work from Devon with small businesses across the UK. This is our ‘your website questions answered’ Content Corner series with weekly tips and advice on how to get the best out of your website, specifically developing blog content that attracts visitors and helps you get found by search engines.
Why links are essential for my website?
Links are one of the key building blocks of the internet. They work in two ways: firstly they guide visitors to other relevant content on or off your website; and secondly they help search engines (like Google) understand the structure and purpose of your website.
Internal links (those that connect pages within your website) are particularly powerful. They create a network of related content, making it easier for users to explore your site and stay engaged for longer, which is an important part of SEO.
For Google, these links help form a clearer picture of what your site is about. When you use links thoughtfully, you're not just sending visitors to other parts of your website; you’re also showing Google the connections between your pages. This helps build your website’s authority and relevance in search results.
Google underlines the importance of linking to relevant resources in its SEO Starter Guide, so we should pay attention!
"Links are a great way to connect your users and search engines to other parts of your site, or relevant pages on other sites. In fact, the vast majority of the new pages Google finds every day are through links, making links a crucial resource you need to consider to help your pages be discovered by Google and potentially shown in search results. Additionally, links can also add value by connecting users (and Google) to another resource that corroborates what you're writing about."
Read more: Video or words: which is better for website & blog SEO?
What is an anchor link?
Every link (the official term is ‘hyperlink’) is made up of two parts: the destination URL and the anchor text. For example, the destination URL might be the Wildings blog, so ‘www.wildings.studio/blog’, whereas the anchor text might be ‘Wildings Studio blog’. If you put them both together you would get the following link: Wildings Studio blog
Anchor text basically means the words that appear on the screen for the link: i.e., the visible, clickable text that takes someone from one page to another. You’ll recognise this from phrases like 'Click here', 'Learn more', 'Buy now' or 'Find out more'. This text can be whatever you want it to be and sometimes you see the URL itself acting as the anchor text, such as www.wildings.studio/blog
An anchor link basically means you’ve covered every base: you’ve got your URL and you’re using some text to go with it.
Read more: How to structure a blog post for better SEO & engagement
Why are anchor links important?
Anchor links are important because they act like signposts: they tell both visitors and search engines like Google what kind of content they can expect if they click through. The more descriptive your anchor text, the more helpful it becomes — especially when it includes relevant keywords. Writing good link text is an important part of SEO, i.e., getting more visible in search results:
With appropriate anchor text, users and search engines can easily understand what your linked pages contain before they visit.
Google goes even further in its guidance on best practices for links and SEO:
Google uses links as a signal when determining the relevancy of pages and to find new pages to crawl.
In other words, the better you use links and the better your anchor link text is, the easier it will be for people and Google to make sense of your content. If we do this well, we can improve our visibility and organic search traffic.
Read more: How content adjacent blogging can revolutionise your SEO
How do anchor links help with SEO?
Anchor links contribute to SEO by enhancing both the user journey and Google’s understanding of your content. Descriptive anchor text signals what a page is about before a visitor even clicks it. This helps in a number of ways specific to SEO:
Increases engagement - visitors are more inclined to click through as the benefits of doing so are more obvious
Lowers bounce rates - visitors are less likely to be disappointed by what they find on the target page, so keep browsing your site
Guides people to the content they’re most interested in - the more relevant you can be to your target audience the better your SEO will be
All of these factors are positive indicators for search engines.
Additionally, well-structured internal linking can help distribute what’s called ‘page authority’ across your site, giving lesser-visited pages a boost in visibility and discoverability. Page authority is a term that describes how likely (out of 100) a page is to rank on a search engine result page; the higher the page authority the more likely it is to rank in a high position.
Overall, anchor links help us build a cohesive, interconnected web of content (an ecosystem) on our website that’s easy to navigate and valuable to explore: why cross-referencing your content with internal links matters:
You may usually think about linking in terms of pointing to external websites, but paying more attention to the anchor text used for internal links can help both people and Google make sense of your site more easily and find other pages on your site. Every page you care about should have a link from at least one other page on your site. Think about what other resources on your site could help your readers understand a given page on your site, and link to those pages in context.
Read more: What's the minimum word count for an SEO-performing blog?
What is best practice with anchor links on my website?
Avoid using vague anchor text like 'click here'
One of the most common pitfalls with links is using generic anchor text like 'Click here' without any context. While it might be clear to you where the link goes, it doesn’t offer much value to your visitors or to Google. It’s a missed opportunity to include relevant keywords and provide helpful context.
Instead, use specific and meaningful phrases that make the value of the link obvious. For example: ‘Explore our Autumn interiors collection’ or ‘Discover how we designed this Richmond townhouse’. These types of anchor links give users a clear reason to click and they reinforce the relevance of your content to search engines.
Keep anchor links concise & informative
When writing anchor text, think short and sweet. You want a few well-chosen words that clearly convey what’s on the other side of the link. Long-winded sentences or vague instructions dilute the impact and can confuse readers. Stick to concise, keyword-rich phrases that are directly related to the page you're linking to.
Again, Google is clear on what it wants to see and how to write good anchor text:
Good anchor text is descriptive, reasonably concise, and relevant to the page that it's on and to the page it links to. It provides context for the link, and sets the expectation for your readers. The better your anchor text, the easier it is for people to navigate your site and for Google to understand what the page you're linking to is about.
In short, avoid generic or 'weirdly' long text; instead, use text that is both concise and descriptive.
Read more: How to write brilliant blogs for better website SEO
Final thoughts on anchor links
Anchor links may seem like a small detail in the grand scheme of your website and developing conent, but they have a big impact on how people interact with your site and how well your site performs in search results. By using anchor links strategically, you’ll make your website more helpful, more searchable, and ultimately, more successful.
Further reading on anchor links
If you want to find out more about anchor links and their connection with SEO, check out the following articles:
Anchor Text by Moz
What SEOs Need to Know About Anchor Text by The Hoth
What Is An Anchor Link? (+ How They Work for SEO) by Loganix
