Internal link anchors: how to optimise them?

In brief: An optimised internal link anchor is descriptive, reasonably concise and relevant both to the page containing the link and to the page it points to: it lets you guess the content of the destination even before you click.

You're writing an article, you add a link to another page on your site, and the reflex kicks in: "click here", "learn more", sometimes just the brand name. Repeated across dozens of pages, this choice deprives your site of a signal that Google uses to understand the content of pages linked to one another.

An internal link anchor is the visible, clickable text of a link that connects two pages of the same a site. It acts as a marker for the reader, who knows what they'll find when they click, and as a marker for Google, which uses it to interpret the topic of the linked page even before crawling it. This guide goes through, step by step, the method to apply to write and place these anchors correctly.

To put this point into a broader perspective, also see SEO semantic cocoon.

What you need before optimising your internal link anchors

Before touching any link text, gather what you actually need. This is editorial and technical work: it requires no particular budget, just access and method.

• Access to the back-office or CMS of the site, so you can edit the text of links already in place.

• Access to a verified Google Search Console property of the site: this is the tool that lets you audit the existing internal linking structure.

• A list of pages considered a priority, even a basic one, to know where to focus effort first.

• A good understanding of the actual content of each target page, essential for writing an anchor that accurately describes it.

• No budget required: unlike an external link-building campaign, this work is done in-house, with the tools already at your disposal.

Step 1: audit your pages to spot those lacking internal links

The first step is to know where you actually stand before writing a single new anchor. Without this audit, you risk reworking pages that are already well linked while neglecting those that need it most.

Using the Search Console Links report

Open the Google Search Console Links report, in its section dedicated to internal links. It shows which pages already receive links from the rest of the site, and specifically from which pages.

Identify pages you consider important but which don't appear in any "linked from" column. This is the signal to address as a priority: every important page should receive at least one inbound link from another page on the site, otherwise Google struggles to connect it to the rest of your content.

Good to know

The data in the Links report remains a known sample from Google, not an exhaustive list. It may also include historical links that have since been removed. Always cross-check this report with a direct look at your pages.

Step 2: choose the right location and the right target page for each anchor

Once the audit is done, the question becomes: where, within a piece of text, does a link genuinely belong? The answer is never found in a list of keywords to slot in, but in the text itself.

Link to a resource that genuinely helps the reader

Identify, within the text you're writing, the site's resources that would concretely help the reader delve deeper into a point or move on to the next step. An internal link is justified by this editorial relationship between the source page and the target page, never merely by a desire to place a keyword there.

Avoiding orphan pages among priority content

Go back to the list of priority pages established in step 1 and check that none has been left without an inbound link. If an important page doesn't fit naturally into any existing text, this is often a sign that you need to create, or rewrite, a paragraph that leads into it naturally.

Step 3: write a descriptive, concise and self-contained anchor

This is the central step of this work: turning a simple link into text that informs, even before the click.

Formulating an anchor that sums up the target page's promise

A good anchor is descriptive, reasonably concise and relevant both to the source page and to the destination page, according to Google Search Central's recommendations on crawlable links. It provides context and sets the reader's expectations before they click.

The most reliable test: read the anchor in isolation, without the surrounding paragraph. If it remains understandable on its own, it's doing its job. Google explicitly recommends this check to judge whether an anchor is self-explanatory. The level of detail should also match the actual depth of the target page: an anchor for a comprehensive guide shouldn't have the same precision as an anchor pointing to a simple definition page.

Key takeaway

An optimised anchor ticks three boxes: it describes the destination, it remains understandable when read in isolation, and its level of detail genuinely matches the content of the target page. Nothing more, nothing less.

Concrete example: turning a vague anchor into an optimised one ("click here" becomes "read our guide to technical SEO audits")

Let's take a common case. A sentence like "to learn more, click here" gives no information about what awaits the reader after clicking. The same sentence rephrased as "to learn more, read our guide to technical SEO audits" immediately specifies the destination, without unnecessarily lengthening the text.

Step 4: insert and code the link correctly

A well-written anchor is useless if the link carrying it isn't coded correctly. This step is about the technical side, not the writing.

Why the <a href> HTML link should be preferred

To be reliably crawled, a link should generally use an HTML element <a href="url-de-la-page">texte d'ancre</a>, with an href attribute that leads to a genuinely usable URL. This is the format Google crawls most reliably, according to its documentation on crawlable links. Pseudo-links that rely solely on a script, without this tag, remain less reliable for crawling.

The case of links carried by an image (alt attribute)

When the link is carried by an image rather than text, the attribute alt acts as replacement anchor text: Google uses it to interpret the link's destination. It should therefore remain descriptive, following exactly the same principles as a text anchor.

Links and anchors generated in JavaScript

If the anchor or the link itself is injected via JavaScript, check that it does appear in the rendered HTML, that is, the final code after the script has run. Without this presence in the rendered output, the link risks being less reliable for crawling, according to the same Google recommendations.

Step 5: check the link's accessibility and actual crawling

A technically correct link isn't always accessible, nor necessarily crawled. This final step closes the quality-control loop.

The accessibility criterion regarding the link's purpose

According to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), the purpose of each link should be able to be determined from the anchor text alone, or from that text combined with its programmatically determined context. Wherever possible, favour text that identifies the link's purpose on its own: this is what makes keyboard navigation or screen reader use easier, where the surrounding visual context disappears.

Checking crawling with the URL Inspection tool

Use Search Console's URL Inspection tool to check whether the page carrying the link has indeed been crawled by Google. This tool also displays the actual rendered HTML of the page, which is particularly useful for checking anchors created by JavaScript: you can see directly whether the link appears in the code that Google analysed.

Common mistakes that weaken your internal link anchors

Certain practices crop up again and again, diluting the value of the work done in the previous steps.

Empty anchors or generic phrasing

• "Click here": describes neither the topic nor the destination of the link.

• "Learn more": still usable if the context is very explicit, but remains less informative than a descriptive anchor.

• "Website" or "article": too generic to distinguish one page from another on a site with several.

These phrasings don't sufficiently describe the destination, which weakens the signal sent to both Google and the reader.

Keyword over-optimisation and stacked links

Write your anchors naturally, without stuffing them with keywords that clutter the sentence. Also avoid stringing together several links back to back without any surrounding text: without a visual cue or context, they become hard to tell apart, both for readers and for screen readers.

Google's anti-spam threshold on linking practices

Google classifies as spam any links created primarily to manipulate rankings, including hidden links, artificially keyword-stuffed links, or low-quality links in certain mass-distribution contexts. This policy doesn't set any public numerical threshold on how many anchors should point to the same page: it targets manipulative intent, not a precise count.

Point to watch

The anchor must always serve understanding and navigation, never the artificial repetition of the same keyword. It's this intent, more than a precise number, that Google evaluates.

Practical tips to maintain your anchor optimisation over time

This work is never finished: every new publication slightly shifts the balance of your existing internal linking.

• Regularly check the Links report in Search Console to make sure your important new pages are indeed receiving inbound links.

• Keep a list of anchors already used towards the same target page, so you can vary the phrasing without ever losing the description of the destination.

• Prioritise first the pages that carry the most weight in your content strategy, before reworking your entire existing internal linking.

This methodical anchor writing truly comes into its own when all your content is organised around a coherent thematic strategy, where each page finds its logical place within the internal linking rather than existing in isolation. It's this overall coherence that turns a collection of well-written anchors into a genuine tool for understanding, for both your readers and Google.