Definition
Anchor text is the clickable words in a link. Google reads them to understand the page the link points to, so good anchor text tells the reader and Google where the link goes. For an image link, Google uses the image's alt text, the short description written into the image's code, as the anchor text.
Example. In read our guide to query fan-out, the anchor text is "guide to query fan-out".
You can list every internal link on a page, with its anchor text, using the free Internal Link Checker.
What makes good anchor text?
Good anchor text is descriptive, reasonably concise, and relevant to the page it sits on and the page it links to. That is Google's own description. Google lists "Click here" and "Read more" as too generic, because they say nothing about where the link goes.
| Anchor text | Verdict |
|---|---|
| Click here | Too generic |
| Read more | Too generic |
| guide to query fan-out | Descriptive |
| Image link with the alt text Query Fan-Out Tool | Descriptive |
| Image link with empty alt text | No anchor text at all |
What did we find in our own anchor text?
We found the same few button labels used on hundreds of links to different pages. On 8 November 2026 we counted the internal links across hawkacademy.co, 10,333 in all.
| Anchor text | Links | Different pages it points to |
|---|---|---|
| Download skill | 149 | 98 |
| Read Guide | 37 | 37 |
| Use Tool | 33 | 33 |
Each of those buttons sits under a card title that names the page, which helps a reader. Google's guidance asks for more: the link's own words should say where it goes. The better button says "Read the query fan-out guide". The same count found all 609 image links on the site carry alt text, so none of them is a blank link.
Does anchor text matter on internal links?
Anchor text matters on internal links, and internal links are the ones you control. Google says that paying attention to the anchor text on your internal links helps both people and Google make sense of your site. Write each one as the name of the page it opens.
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Sources
Last checked against these sources on 8 November 2026.