--- title: "Anchor Text: Types and Best Practices, Singapore | Aemorph" url: https://aemorph.com/en-sg/guides/anchor-text/ description: "Anchor text for Singapore websites: the six types of anchor text, examples, Google's best practices, paid-link labelling and how to audit your links." schema_type: Article publisher: Aemorph publisher_entity: https://aemorph.com/entitymap.json#org_aemorph language: en-SG updated: 2026-10-25 --- Guides # Anchor Text for Singapore Websites: Types, Examples and Best Practices for SEO **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](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/links-crawlable)).** 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. [See Aemorph's SEO service for Singapore](https://aemorph.com/en-sg/services/seo/) Written by [Kevin Dam](https://aemorph.com/en-sg/about/), founder of Aemorph, who has practised SEO since 2010 and sits on the [Forbes Agency Council](https://councils.forbes.com/profile/Kevin-Dam-Global-Search-Architect-%7C-SEO-GEO-AEO-IMO-LLM-Visibility-Aemorph/4c8c7a38-1285-470d-8ea8-e517a310a00b). Aemorph is a [Google Partner](https://www.google.com/partners/agency?id=4441861842), headquartered at 34 South Bridge Road, Singapore. [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevindam) --- ## 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". ``` on-page SEO audit checklist ``` 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](https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share/all/singapore)), so Google's link guidance sets the standard for anchor text on a Singapore site.** [DataReportal's Digital 2026: Singapore](https://datareportal.com/reports/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/](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](https://www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/images/functional/)). The [image SEO guide](https://aemorph.com/en-sg/guides/image-seo/) 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](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/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](https://aemorph.com/en-sg/guides/asas-advertising-code/) 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](https://aemorph.com/en-sg/guides/on-page-seo-audit/) and the [off-page SEO guide](https://aemorph.com/en-sg/guides/off-page-seo/). Pick link targets with [keyword research](https://aemorph.com/en-sg/guides/keyword-research/) and follow the pages those links support with [keyword ranking tracking](https://aemorph.com/en-sg/guides/keyword-rankings/). --- ## 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](https://aemorph.com/en-sg/services/seo/) covers internal linking, link building and the audits that keep both in order. THE STRATEGIC CONVERSATION ## Start with a free *strategic conversation*. Every Aemorph engagement starts with a free strategic conversation. It is the fastest way to see whether Aemorph fits your business before you commit budget. [Book a strategic conversation →](https://aemorph.com/en-sg/contact/) STARTING POINT Free You talk through your goals with Aemorph, and Aemorph quotes your engagement after the conversation.