The surrounding text of a link genuinely matters, and the honest verdict is that it is not merely as important as the anchor but a real co-signal in its own right, one that can carry relevance even when the anchor is generic. Google reads the content around a link, the sentence, the paragraph, the section it sits in, to understand what the link is about and whether it fits the target page. This is observed behavior rather than a published rule, so treat it as a working understanding worth confirming, but the practical implication is clear: context counts, and sometimes it is the deciding factor.
The reason it works this way is that anchor text alone is a thin and easily gamed signal. A search engine trying to understand why one page links to another gets far more from the surrounding language than from a few anchor words in isolation, especially when the anchor is something vague like “click here” or “this guide.” The text wrapping the link tells Google the topic, the intent, and the relationship between the two pages, so it uses that context to interpret the link’s meaning. That is why a relevantly framed link with a plain anchor can still pass strong topical signal, while a keyword-perfect anchor dropped into unrelated text passes far less than its anchor would suggest.
What this does not mean is that the anchor stops mattering. The anchor is still a direct and useful description of the destination, and a relevant, descriptive anchor remains the cleaner choice. The point is that anchor and context work together, and the old assumption that only the anchor text matters is too narrow. When the two reinforce each other, a link in genuinely relevant surrounding text with a fitting anchor, you get the strongest signal, and when they conflict, the context often tells the real story.
The practical move is to place links in genuinely relevant context, not just with the right anchor word. Before linking, ask whether the sentence and section around the link actually relate to the page you are pointing to, and write so they do. Earn relevance from the whole passage rather than betting everything on the anchor, and your links will carry more weight regardless of how the anchor reads.