Should you link with branded or descriptive anchors internally?
- Published November 6, 2026
- Linked from 1 answer
- In a cluster of 2
Descriptive anchors for links inside your content, and the name of the thing for navigation. A link in the body is there to tell the reader what the next page covers, so an anchor that describes it does that job; a link to your home page, a product by name or the company’s about page points at something the reader already knows by its name, so the name is the clearest anchor. Choose by what each link is for.
Match the anchor to the link’s job
| Link | Anchor | Why |
|---|---|---|
| From an article to a related guide | Descriptive: "how to choose a standing desk" | Says what the reader will find |
| From an article to a product page | The product's name, or a description of it | Readers recognize the name; a description helps those who do not |
| In the header or footer to the home page | The site or brand name | Navigation by name is what visitors expect |
| To a named tool, report or program on your site | Its name | The name is how people refer to it |
| To a service page from a case study | Descriptive: "our accessibility audits" | Ties the link to what the reader just read |
Google’s link best practices give one test that covers both kinds: read the anchor on its own, out of context, and check that it is specific enough to make sense by itself. A brand name passes that test for a link to the home page; “click here” passes it for nothing.
Why not one style everywhere
Using only brand names inside articles wastes the chance to say what each linked page is about. Using only descriptive keyword phrases in navigation makes menus long and awkward and repeats the same phrase on every page. Neither causes a problem with Google on its own; each simply does a poorer job of guiding readers than the right anchor for the link would.
Varying the wording
Different pages linking to the same destination sit in different sentences, so their anchors will differ naturally if each is written for its sentence. For how closely those anchors should follow the target page’s title, read whether internal anchors should match the target page’s title. Let the job of the link choose the style, and the sentence choose the words.
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