Anchor text distribution refers to the overall variety and proportion of different anchor text types used across all the backlinks pointing to a website. A natural distribution typically includes a mix of branded anchors (your company name), generic phrases (“click here,” “read more”), naked URLs, and topically relevant keyword phrases.
An unnaturally high concentration of exact-match keyword anchor text is one of the clearest signals of manipulative link-building practices to search engines, and has historically been associated with algorithmic penalties like Google Penguin.
Monitoring anchor text distribution is an important, ongoing part of managing backlink health, particularly for websites that have engaged in aggressive link building in the past.
We monitor anchor text health as part of our ongoing link building and reporting services.