Guides
Exact Match Anchor Text: What 9,459 Live Backlinks Actually Used
We read the anchor text on 9,459 backlinks we delivered and confirmed live. Exact match anchor text was the biggest group at 34.4%, "click here" was 17.4%, and the median customer website received four different anchors.
Backlinkcart Team
14 Sept 2026 · 10 min read
Exact match anchor text was the largest single type in 9,459 backlinks we delivered and later confirmed live: 34.4% of the links used a keyword the buyer had listed, word for word. Another 17.4% simply said "click here", and the median customer website received just four different anchor texts across all of its links.
Anchor text is the clickable wording of a link. Advice on what an anchor text mix should look like is everywhere; data on what paid link packages actually place is not. This is that data, read off the live pages of our own deliveries.
How we measured it
The sample comes from 20 customer orders we delivered between July and September 2026, and it only uses links whose anchor text we read on the live page.
- Live. Our checker fetches each placement page with a standard desktop browser user agent and a 20-second timeout. A link counts as live only when the page loads and its HTML contains a link pointing at the customer's domain. A 404 or 410, or a page that loads without the link, is dead. Anything inconclusive, such as a blocked request, a timeout or a page that draws its links with JavaScript, is left out. It is the same check behind our link building statistics.
- Anchor. The visible text inside that link on the live page, not the wording on an order form. We use only links last checked on or after 25 August 2026, when the checker began reading anchors from the page. That drops 562 of 10,021 live links and leaves 9,459 links from 18 orders, covering 20 customer websites, read between 25 August and 14 September 2026.
- Classification. Automatic, by rule. Exact match is identical, ignoring case and spacing, to a keyword the buyer listed. Brand contains the name part of the buyer's domain. Partial match shares a meaningful word with a listed keyword. Generic is a fixed list of phrases such as "click here". Naked URL is a web address or bare domain.
Limits. This is one seller's deliveries, not a survey of the web. Our two foundation pack sizes make up 54.9% and 21.5% of the sample and premium placements 2.8%, so the totals mostly describe bulk packages. Live means live when last checked. And the data describes what was placed, not which anchors help or hurt a site in search.
Anchor text distribution across 9,459 live backlinks
| Anchor text type | Links | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Exact match keyword | 3,256 | 34.4% |
| Brand name the buyer had also listed as a keyword | 2,006 | 21.2% |
| Brand name only | 737 | 7.8% |
| Generic ("click here", "more info" and similar) | 2,040 | 21.6% |
| Naked URL | 769 | 8.1% |
| Partial match keyword | 609 | 6.4% |
| Other phrases, image links and empty anchors | 42 | 0.4% |
| All live links in the sample | 9,459 |
Together, 63.4% of links used either a keyword the buyer asked for or the brand name. Many buyers list their brand as a target keyword, so 21.2% of links were a brand name and a listed keyword at once. We show that group separately, because folding it into either exact match or brand would change the headline figure.
Exact match anchor text by package
Exact match was the biggest single type, but not a uniform one. Across the 20 customer websites it ranged from 0.0% to 77.8% of a website's links (median 41.1%), and it passed half on 9 of them. The package explains much of that spread:
| Package | Customer websites | Live links | Distinct anchors per website (median) | Exact match | Brand name | Generic | Naked URL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,200-link foundation packs | 5 | 5,191 | 4 | 37.7% | 22.0% | 23.6% | 5.0% |
| 300-link foundation packs | 7 | 2,032 | 3 | 50.0% | 9.8% | 31.9% | 8.3% |
| Large local SEO campaign (retired package) | 1 | 1,306 | 19 | 12.6% | 54.6% | 12.9% | 20.0% |
| Custom bundle covering three websites | 3 | 662 | 1 | 0.0% | 100.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Premium in-article and contextual packs | 4 | 268 | 8 | 44.4% | 9.0% | 0.0% | 30.2% |
Rows do not add to 100%; the rest is partial match, other phrases, image links and empty anchors. "Brand name" includes brands the buyer also listed as keywords.
The premium row is small, four customer websites and 268 links, so treat it as an indication. It did show more variety, a median of 8 distinct anchors and up to 22, and no generic anchors. The custom bundle is the opposite case: each of its three websites got one anchor text, its brand name, on every link. For what else sits inside a bulk package, see our count of every URL in one 1,200-link delivery.
Anchor text diversity: a median of four phrases per website
| Distinct anchor texts on one customer website | Customer websites |
|---|---|
| 1 | 3 |
| 2 to 3 | 5 |
| 4 to 5 | 7 |
| 6 to 10 | 3 |
| 11 or more | 2 |
The median customer website received 4 distinct anchor texts, at very different sizes: a website with 95 live links had four, and so did one with 1,197. The most-used anchor carried a median 35.0% of a website's links. On 19 of the 20 websites one phrase covered at least a quarter of the links; on 4 it covered half or more.
A longer keyword list did not change this in foundation packs. One buyer listed 38 keywords and received 4 distinct anchors; another listed 28 and received 3. On 17 of the 20 websites, the distinct anchors other than generic phrases and URLs were no more numerous than the keywords listed.
Branded anchor text and naked URLs
Brand names were 29.0% of links: 21.2% where the buyer had also listed the brand as a keyword and 7.8% where they had not. They made up 54.6% of the large local campaign and 100.0% of the custom bundle.
Naked URLs were 8.1%, and 679 of those 769 were a bare domain or www address rather than a full http:// or https:// link. They reached 30.2% in the premium placements and 20.0% in the local campaign.
Generic anchor text: "click here" on 17.4% of links
Generic anchor text was 21.6% of the sample, and one phrase dominated it: "click here" appeared on 1,644 links (17.4%), followed by "more info" on 252 (2.7%).
"Click here" turned up on 11 of the 20 customer websites and, where it appeared, carried a median 25.0% of that website's links. In our data it belongs to bulk packages: 23.6% of links in 1,200-link packs and 19.5% in 300-link packs, against 0.0% in premium placements.
What this means if you are buying links
- Count distinct anchors, not only links. A report of a thousand links can carry four phrases. If your report lists the anchor for each link, this takes a minute, and checking that anchor against the live page is one of the quickest backlink quality checks you can run.
- Put the mix in writing. In our foundation packs, a longer keyword list alone did not add variety. If you want the brand, the bare URL, several phrasings and a rough share for each, say so when you order.
- Decide how much exact match you are comfortable with. No one outside Google can give you a proven ratio, and this data cannot either. It does show how wide the range runs in practice: from none to 77.8% of a website's links.
- Expect generic anchors in bulk packs. "Click here" was 17.4% of all links here and absent from the premium placements. When you compare packages, ask what anchor mix each one produces, and size the campaign first with the backlinks calculator.
What we changed after measuring this
Much of the pattern above started with our own process. Buyers gave us a keyword list, and we passed it to the supplier under the heading "anchor text / keywords". A package that accepts two or three anchors then turned the first two or three keywords into hundreds of identical links.
Backlink orders now go to the supplier with a written anchor plan, built from the buyer's own brand, domain and keywords:
| Anchor type in the plan | Share of links |
|---|---|
| Brand name | 25% |
| Naked URL: the bare domain, www and https versions | 20% |
| Brand plus a keyword, such as "Acme power drills" | 30% |
| Generic phrases, rotated across five wordings | 15% |
| Exact match keywords, spread across the top three | 10% |
Where a package accepts only two anchors, we send the brand name and one brand-plus-keyword phrase instead of two exact match keywords.
We also check what went live. For orders placed from 15 September 2026, before delivering a report with 30 or more live links, we look at the anchor text on those links and hold the report for review if exact match anchors are more than 25% of them, generic anchors such as "click here" are more than 15%, or any one phrase other than the brand name or a URL is more than 30%.
These shares are a deliberate, conservative mix, not a ranking formula. As the data above shows, nobody can prove a best ratio. They are the baseline we will measure our next deliveries against.
What is exact match anchor text?
Exact match anchor text is link text that repeats a target keyword word for word. In this dataset an anchor counts as exact match only when it is identical, ignoring capital letters and spacing, to a keyword the buyer listed when ordering. A brand name the buyer also listed as a keyword is counted separately.
How much exact match anchor text do paid backlinks use?
In 9,459 backlinks we delivered and confirmed live, with anchors read between 25 August and 14 September 2026, 34.4% used exact match anchor text and another 21.2% used a brand name the buyer had also listed as a keyword. By package it ranged from 0.0% in a custom bundle that used only brand names to 50.0% in our 300-link foundation packs. This is one seller's data, weighted towards bulk packages.
What anchor text ratio should I ask for?
There is no official anchor text ratio, and our data cannot say which mix works best in search. It shows what our foundation packs produced from the keywords buyers listed: 3 to 4 distinct phrases per website, a large exact match share and a lot of "click here". If you want a different ratio, list the brand, URL and keyword variations you want, with a share for each, when you order.
Why do so many backlinks say "click here"?
In our data "click here" came from bulk packages. It was 23.6% of links in 1,200-link foundation packs and 19.5% in 300-link packs, did not appear in the premium in-article placements, and showed up on 11 of 20 customer websites. The data shows how often a phrase appears on the live page, not why a placement used it.
Does this data show which anchor text works best for rankings?
No. It measures the anchor text on links that were delivered and still live when checked, not what happened in search afterwards, and we make no claim that any mix helps or hurts rankings. It is a measured baseline to compare your own delivery reports against.