Anchor text is the smallest piece of SEO writing and one of the most revealing. A link label tells the reader what waits on the other side and tells a crawler what the target page is about. When it does neither, both audiences waste a click. Most mistakes come from two habits pulling in opposite directions: repeating one phrase until it looks mechanical, or writing something so vague it says nothing.

What the anchor actually does

Every link carries three things: a destination, a label, and a reason. The label should make sense in the sentence around it. The reason should be obvious enough that a reader who is only skimming still knows why the link exists. If a link has no reason, delete it; links are not decoration.

The most common pattern on small business sites is six internal links to the same service page, all reading custom printed mugs. It looks like a template and reads like one. Variation is not a trick; it is what happens when a person writes different sentences for different readers.

A single service page might be linked as printed mugs in bulk, minimum order quantities, the mug printing service, and how pricing works. Same destination, four honest descriptions, each fitting its own sentence.

If two links read identically, at least one of them is in the wrong place.

Mistake two: click here, read more, learn more

These labels describe the action, not the destination. Screen reader users often navigate by link list, where twenty read more links become twenty identical entries. The fix takes seconds: name the thing. Read the full delivery guide, not read more. See the 2026 price list, not click here.

Buttons are allowed to be short, but even a button can carry meaning: Request a sample, Download the size chart, Compare materials.

Mistake three: exact match on money pages

When every blog post ends with a link whose label is the exact commercial phrase, the pattern is visible to anyone who reads three posts. It also produces dull copy, because the sentence has to bend around the phrase. Write the sentence first, then choose the shortest honest label inside it.

External links deserve the same care. Link to a source with the title or the specific fact, not with the domain name pasted into a sentence.

A pasted URL is unreadable on a phone and says nothing. An image link with no alt text says nothing at all. If an image must be the link, give it descriptive alt text and put a text link nearby.

A distribution that still helps

There is no correct ratio, but a healthy page links in a few different ways: some anchors name the topic, some name the task, some name the section, and some sit on a sentence that explains the benefit. Most links should point to pages that genuinely help the reader continue, not only to the page you want to sell.

Depth matters too. Linking only to the homepage and the contact page leaves your middle pages with no support. Aim for every important page to receive at least three internal links from relevant pages.

One more habit helps: link forward, not just backward. When you publish a new page, return to two older pages and add a link from them. Older pages usually carry more weight, and a single relevant link from an established article often does more than five links from the new page itself.

  • Export all internal links with their anchor text and target URL.
  • Flag any label used more than three times for the same target.
  • Replace click here, read more, and learn more with named destinations.
  • Check that image links have descriptive alt text.
  • List pages with fewer than three internal links pointing to them.
  • Read each changed sentence aloud to confirm it still sounds like a person.

Then leave it alone for a quarter. Anchor text is a maintenance job, not a weekly project. Set a reminder, repeat the audit each quarter, and spend the time you save on pages that genuinely need writing.