The mix of clickable link text pointing to a page, which signals topic relevance and can flag manipulation.
ID
SS-DF-125
Confidence
Established · 83
Evidence
Established
Updated
2026-07-08
Definition
The mix of clickable link text pointing to a page, which signals topic relevance and can flag manipulation.
Anchor text distribution describes the proportions of different anchor types across a page's inbound links, including branded, exact-match keyword, partial-match, generic and naked-URL anchors. A natural profile skews towards branded and generic anchors, with only a modest share of exact-match keywords. An unnaturally high concentration of exact-match commercial anchors is a classic footprint of manipulative link building and can trigger algorithmic or manual penalties.