Link text
Link text, or anchor text, is the visible, clickable words of a link. It tells readers and search engines what the linked page is about.
Link text, also called anchor text, is the visible part of a link: the words you click. In "read our guide to cold brew," the link text might be "guide to cold brew." It tells the reader where the link goes, and it tells search engines what the page at the other end is about.
Why the words matter
Search engines read link text as a short description of the page it points to. Google says so in its link best practices: good link text is descriptive, reasonably short and relevant to the page it links to.
So "click here" and "read more" waste the link. "Our oak table care guide" tells everyone what they'll find. The same goes for links other sites give you. When a review says "Kestrel's single-origin beans" and links to that page, it's describing the page in its own words.
Too much of a good thing
The opposite mistake is link text written for rankings. If every link to your site says "best coffee subscription UK," it reads like a link scheme, because people don't link that way. Real link text varies: your brand name, the page title, a phrase from the sentence around it.
For example, say Fernhill Coffee links to its subscription page from 30 blog posts, and every link says "coffee subscription." Changing them to fit each sentence, like "our monthly subscription" or "the Fernhill box," reads better and looks natural.
Link text and AI search
The words around your brand on other sites matter in AI search, linked or not. If a roundup calls you "the roaster with free next-day delivery," that's the kind of phrase an answer can pick up. Clear link text on your own site also helps any crawler, an AI platform's bot included, work out which page covers what.