Anchor text is the part of a link a reader clicks, and Google's guidance is that it is descriptive, reasonably concise and relevant to the page carrying it and to the page it leads to (Google Search Central, link best practices). For a Singapore website that guidance carries most of the weight, because Google held 92.16% of search engine market share in Singapore in September 2026 (StatCounter). A well-chosen anchor tells readers and Google what the linked page covers, helping the matching page rank. Describe the destination in plain words and keep keyword stuffing out of your anchors.
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What Is Anchor Text on a Singapore Website?
Anchor text is the visible wording between the opening and closing tags of an HTML link, the a element with its href attribute. In this example the anchor text is "on-page SEO audit checklist".
<a href="https://aemorph.com/en-sg/guides/on-page-seo-audit/">on-page SEO audit checklist</a>Visitors read the anchor before clicking, and search engines treat it as a label for the linked page.
Anchor Text in Singapore Search: Written for Google First
Google held 92.16% of search engine market share in Singapore in September 2026 and Bing 4.53% (StatCounter, Singapore), so Google's link guidance sets the standard for anchor text on a Singapore site. DataReportal's Digital 2026: Singapore reports 5.78 million internet users and 98.4% penetration as of October 2025.
| Measure | Figure | Market and date | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google share of search engine market | 92.16% | Singapore, September 2026 | StatCounter |
| Bing share of search engine market | 4.53% | Singapore, September 2026 | StatCounter |
| Internet users | 5.78 million, 98.4% of the population | Singapore, as of October 2025 | DataReportal |
Sources: StatCounter, Singapore, September 2026; DataReportal, Digital 2026: Singapore, data as of October 2025.
What Are the Six Types of Anchor Text?
Almost every link on a Singapore site falls into one of six anchor types: 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", "find out more" | Nothing about the destination | Avoid | Wastes the description signal |
| Branded | "Aemorph" | Who owns the destination | Brand mentions and profile links | Low |
| Exact match | "keyword research" | The target topic, word for word | When the phrase is the plain name of the destination | Stuffed keywords, especially in links placed on other sites |
| Partial match | "keyword research for Singapore SMEs" | The topic in natural wording | Default for body links | Low |
| Naked URL | https://aemorph.com/en-sg/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 | Image-only links with empty alt text carry no description |
The six anchor text types, with Singapore examples.
How does anchor text work on an image link?
When an image is the link, Google reads the image's alt attribute as the anchor text, so an image-only link carries alt text that names its destination. If the link also holds visible text naming the destination, the W3C accessibility tutorial sets the image's alt text to empty to avoid repetition (W3C WAI, functional images). The image SEO guide explains how to write alt text.
What Are the Anchor Text Best Practices for Singapore Websites?
Five habits keep anchor text helpful and safe: write it naturally, link only to relevant pages, vary the wording, keep links apart and check who links to you.
How do you write anchor text naturally?
Build the anchor into the sentence, so a Singapore reader understands what the destination offers without breaking off from the paragraph. If the anchor alone does not say what the page covers, describe more. Replace "click here" with the name of the thing.
Which pages do you link to?
Add a link only where the destination adds something to the sentence, because a relevant link serves the reader and a forced one weakens both pages. A keyword research paragraph linking to a keyword tracking guide helps; 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.
How much exact-match anchor text is too much?
Repeated exact-match wording is not spam in itself; choose descriptive anchors that fit the sentence and avoid keyword stuffing and links placed elsewhere to manipulate rankings. Google asks you to resist the urge to cram in every keyword related to the linked page. The risk peaks 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).
How do you keep links distinct?
Give each link its own surrounding words and avoid placing links back to back, because chained links are hard to tell apart. Put anchors into the rendered HTML as crawlable a elements, and test any link that JavaScript inserts with the URL Inspection Tool in Search Console.
How do you vet who links to you?
Check your inbound links in Search Console and a backlink tool, then label the paid and user-added links on your own pages. On your site, mark paid links with rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow", and user-added links in forums and comments with rel="ugc" or rel="nofollow". For a paid placement on someone else's site, the publisher controls the HTML, so ask them to apply the attribute; ask spammy sites to take down links you did not earn.
A paid placement in Singapore also has a reader-facing side. Under paragraph 16 of the Second Schedule to the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act 2003, it is an unfair practice to make a representation in an objective form, such as an editorial, when it is primarily made to sell goods or services, unless it states that it is an advertisement or a promotion. So a sponsored article is labelled for readers as well as tagged for Google. The ASAS advertising code guide covers the wider advertising rules.
General guidance, not legal advice.
How Do You Audit Anchor Text on Your Singapore Website?
Export your internal links from a crawler, sort them by anchor text and fix three patterns: generic anchors, one anchor pointing at many different targets and one target reached by many unrelated anchors. Rewrite each generic anchor to name its destination. Settle on one or two descriptive phrases per target and re-crawl once the changes are live. Pair the findings with the on-page SEO audit and the off-page SEO guide.
Pick link targets with keyword research and follow the pages those links support with keyword ranking tracking.
Build Links That Describe Your Singapore Pages
Clear anchors and relevant links show Google which of your pages answers which search, so the right page reaches your Singapore buyers. Aemorph's SEO service for Singapore covers internal linking, link building and the audits that keep both in order.