Anchor text strategy: writing link text that ranks without over-optimisation

Anchor text is the clickable text in a hyperlink. It is one of the strongest on-page ranking signals available to you, and one of the easiest to get wrong. Over-optimised anchor text triggers Google's Penguin filter. Under-optimised anchor text wastes ranking potential. This lesson gives you the exact ratios and techniques for Wix sites.

The Five Types of Anchor Text

• Exact match: uses your target keyword exactly, e.g. "Wix SEO expert". Powerful but risky if overused.
• Partial match: includes part of your keyword naturally, e.g. "learn about Wix SEO services". Safe and effective.
• Branded: uses your brand name, e.g. "Frontline Web". Natural and expected.
• Generic: uses non-descriptive text, e.g. "click here" or "read more". Low SEO value but natural in moderation.
• Naked URL: uses the URL itself, e.g. "frontlineweb.biz". Natural and safe.

Safe Anchor Text Ratios

For internal links on your Wix site, a safe distribution is roughly 30-40% partial match, 20-30% branded, 15-20% exact match, 10-15% generic, and 5-10% naked URL. The key principle is variation. If every internal link pointing to your services page uses the exact same anchor text, Google sees that as manipulation.

Writing Natural Anchor Text for Internal Links

How to write effective anchor text

• Write the sentence first, then decide which words should be linked
• Link text should describe what the reader will find on the destination page
• Vary your anchor text across different pages linking to the same destination
• Use 2-5 word phrases rather than single words or entire sentences
• Read the linked text aloud: does it sound natural in conversation?

Auditing Your Existing Anchor Text Profile

Use Screaming Frog (free up to 500 URLs) to crawl your Wix site and export all internal links with their anchor text. Look for patterns: are too many links using the same exact-match keyword? Are there opportunities to add partial-match anchors to existing content? This audit takes 20 minutes and often reveals quick ranking wins.

Complete How-To Guide: Anchor Text Strategy and Optimisation

Follow this step-by-step guide to audit your current anchor text profile, fix over-optimised links, and establish a natural anchor text distribution across your Wix site.

Follow these steps to optimise your anchor text strategy

• Export all internal links from your Wix site using Screaming Frog or a free crawler
• Create a spreadsheet listing every anchor text and its target URL
• Categorise each anchor text (exact match/partial match/branded/generic/naked URL)
• Calculate your current anchor text ratio for each target page
• Identify pages with over-optimised anchor text (more than 30% exact match)
• Rewrite over-optimised anchors to use natural variations and partial-match phrases
• For new internal links always use descriptive contextual phrases that read naturally
• Vary anchor text across different linking pages so no two pages use the same anchor for the same target
• Audit external backlink anchor text using Ahrefs or Moz free tools
• Create an anchor text style guide document for your Wix site to maintain consistency
• Re-crawl your site after changes to verify the new anchor text distribution looks natural