Anchor text is the visible text on which a link is placed, and it indicates what the destination page is about. A natural backlink profile contains various types: the brand name, the website address, generic phrases such as "here" or "more information", and a smaller share of topical phrases. If a large proportion of links contains the same exact keyword, this is a signal of artificial link building, which can lead to the links being devalued. The practical consequence for a business is that, when acquiring links, it is not worth insisting on exact wording – a natural mention within the text brings more value than a forced phrase. The distribution of anchor texts can be checked in analytics tools and compared against the profile of competitors ranking higher.
Source: developers.google.com
See also: Backlink profile, Internal linking from content, Toxic links and disavow.
