Anchor text is the visible text you click on in a link. It tells Google what the destination page is about, and that holds for both internal and external links. A healthy profile contains 4 kinds of anchor - brand, bare URL, descriptive phrases and neutral words - and an excessive share of any one reads as manipulation.
When Google encounters a link, the link text is the cheapest hint about the page it leads to. That holds even before the crawler visits that page.
On internal links the signal is entirely under your control and therefore the most useful. If ten pages link to your web design page with a phrase that says exactly that, the message is clear.
On external links you have no control, and that is fine. It is natural for people to link to you by company name or bare URL, and that variety is precisely what looks credible.
Brand - the company name. The most common and most natural form on external links.
Bare URL - the address written as text. Typical of directories and mentions.
Descriptive - a phrase describing the destination content. Most useful for internal linking, and most dangerous if overdone externally.
Neutral - "here", "more information", "see this". They carry no meaning but are a normal part of any text.
If a hundred external links use the same descriptive phrase, that is not a pattern which arises on its own. The system reads such a profile as artificial and most often simply ignores it, penalising it in obvious cases.
The same problem exists internally on a smaller scale. Linking with an identical phrase from every page wastes the chance to cover related variants and makes the text read unnaturally.
A practical rule: choose internal anchors by what helps the reader understand where the link goes. If the sentence still makes sense without the link, the anchor is probably good.
For internal linking, use the phrase that is the target for the destination page, but vary the form - once the full phrase, once shortened, once a related term.
Avoid the same phrase leading to two different pages. That is a form of cannibalisation sending Google a contradictory signal about which page owns the topic.
On images the alt text takes the role of anchor text. If an image is a link, the alt describes the destination, not only the picture.
On external links, where you get to suggest the text - in a directory, in a guest article - choose the company name or a natural phrasing rather than a stuffed phrase.
There is no exact ratio that holds for everyone, but there is a pattern that looks natural. On external links the largest share falls to the company name and the bare URL, a smaller share to neutral phrasings, and the smallest to descriptive phrases carrying keywords.
When that relationship inverts - when most external links carry the same descriptive phrase - the profile stops looking like something that formed on its own. The usual consequence is that such links stop contributing, and in blatant cases a penalty follows.
Internal links are a different matter, and there descriptive text is desirable, because you alone decide how your own pages connect. An external link you do not control and should not force.
If you are writing a guest article or submitting to a directory, choose the company name. It is the phrasing that never looks suspicious and it builds recognition, while ranked content comes from the sum of signals rather than a single phrase.
Last updated: 17 August 2026
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