Anchor text is the clickable text of a link, and Google asks for it to be descriptive, reasonably concise and relevant to both the page it sits on and the page it points to (Google Search Central, link best practices). Bing, the second search engine in Australia, asks for links that "include relevant anchor text or image alt attributes". Clear anchors tell Australian readers and both search engines what the destination covers, which helps the right page rank for the searches your buyers make. Name the destination in natural words and avoid forced keyword stuffing.
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What Is Anchor Text in Australian SEO?
Anchor text is the visible wording inside an HTML link element, written as an a tag with an href attribute. In the example below, the anchor text is "on-page SEO audit checklist".
<a href="https://aemorph.com/en-au/guides/on-page-seo-audit/">on-page SEO audit checklist</a>Readers use the anchor to decide whether to click; Google and Bing read it as a description of the linked page, which a vague anchor wastes.
Anchor Text in Australian Search: Google and Bing Both Read Your Links
Google held 87.9% of search engine market share in Australia in September 2026 and Bing 9.17% (StatCounter, Australia), so an Australian site writes its anchors for both engines' published link guidance.
| Measure | Figure | Market and date | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google share of search engine market | 87.9% | Australia, September 2026 | StatCounter |
| Bing share of search engine market | 9.17% | Australia, September 2026 | StatCounter |
| Bing link guidance | Standard a href links with relevant anchor text or image alt attributes | Bing, all markets, checked 24 October 2026 | Bing Webmaster Guidelines |
Sources: StatCounter, Australia, September 2026; Microsoft, Bing Webmaster Guidelines, checked 24 October 2026.
Aemorph verifies Australian client sites in both Bing Webmaster Tools and Google Search Console.
What Are the Six Types of Anchor Text?
Six anchor types cover nearly every link on an Australian site: generic, branded, exact match, partial match, naked URL and image.
| Type | Example | What it tells the reader | When to use it | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Generic | "click here", "read more" | Nothing about the destination | Avoid | Wastes the description signal |
| Branded | "Aemorph" | Who the destination belongs to | Brand mentions and profile links | Low |
| Exact match | "keyword research" | The target topic, word for word | Where the phrase accurately names the destination | Forced or stuffed keywords, above all on other sites |
| Partial match | "a keyword research guide for Australian businesses" | The topic in natural wording | Default for body links | Low |
| Naked URL | https://aemorph.com/en-au/guides/keyword-research/ | The address only | Citations and references | Low, but describes little |
| Image link | An image whose alt text names the destination | Whatever the alt text says | Banners and logos | An image-only link with empty alt text is undescribed |
The six anchor text types, with Australian examples.
How does anchor text work on an image link?
On an image link, Google uses the image's alt attribute as the anchor text, and Bing's guidelines name image alt attributes alongside anchor text, so an image-only link needs alt text that describes the destination. When the same link already carries visible text naming the destination, the W3C accessibility tutorial gives the image empty alt text to avoid repetition (W3C WAI, functional images). The image SEO guide shows how to write alt text.
What Are the Anchor Text Best Practices for Australian Sites?
Five practices keep anchor text useful and safe in Google and Bing: write naturally, link to relevant pages, vary the wording, keep links distinct and vet who links to you.
How do you write anchor text naturally for Australian readers?
Write the anchor as part of the sentence, in the Australian English your readers use, so they see what the destination offers without leaving the paragraph. Read the anchor on its own: if it does not say what the page covers, it needs more description. Swap "click here" for the name of the thing.
Which pages do you link to?
Link only where the destination adds to the sentence, because a relevant link helps the reader and a forced one dilutes both pages. A link from a keyword research paragraph to a keyword tracking guide helps the reader; a link to an unrelated service page does not. Google's guidance is that every page you care about has a link from at least one other page on your site; Bing asks for crawlable internal links to each important URL.
How much exact-match anchor text is too much?
Use descriptive anchors that fit the sentence: exact-match wording is fine where it accurately names the destination, and the risk lies in forced keyword stuffing and link schemes. Google asks you to resist the urge to cram in every keyword related to the page you link to. The risk is highest on external links: Google's spam policies list links with optimised anchor text in articles, guest posts or press releases distributed on other sites as an example of link spam (Google Search Central, spam policies), and Bing's guidelines treat link buying and link spamming as violations.
How do you keep links distinct?
Give each link its own context and avoid chaining several links side by side, because readers struggle to tell chained links apart and each link loses its surrounding text. Insert anchors in the rendered HTML as standard, crawlable a elements, and test JavaScript-inserted links with the URL Inspection Tool in Google Search Console.
How do you vet who links to you?
Review your inbound links in Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools and a backlink tool, and qualify the paid and user-added links on pages you control. Bing's Backlinks report lists the referring domains and the anchor texts it detects pointing at your site, up to 1,500 anchor texts, as a representative set rather than a complete profile. On your own site, mark paid links with rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow", and user-inserted links in forums and comments with rel="ugc" or rel="nofollow". For a paid link to your site from another publisher, ask that publisher to apply the qualifier, and ask owners of spammy sites to remove links you did not earn.
How Do You Audit Anchor Text on Your Australian Site?
Export internal links from a crawler, sort by anchor text and fix three patterns: generic anchors, one anchor used for many different targets and one target linked with many unrelated anchors. Rewrite generic anchors to name the destination. Give each target one or two stable descriptive phrases, then vary within them. Re-crawl after the change and check external anchors in Bing's Backlinks report. Combine the results with the on-page SEO audit and the off-page SEO guide.
Choose link targets with keyword research and track the pages those links support with keyword ranking tracking.
Build Links That Describe Your Australian Pages
Clear anchors and relevant links help Google and Bing understand which of your pages answers which search, so the right page reaches your Australian buyers. Aemorph's SEO service for Australia covers internal linking, link building and the audits that keep both clean.