What is a branded anchor?
A branded anchor is a link whose visible text is a brand name. When a news article mentions "Search Insider" and links those two words to searchinsider.io, the link has a branded anchor. Ahrefs defines the type simply: "the anchor text is the name of our brand" [1], and Wikipedia lists branded anchors as "a brand that is used as the anchor" [2].
<!-- Branded anchor -->
<a href="https://searchinsider.io/">Search Insider</a>Branded anchors include common variations: the brand with its domain ending ("SearchInsider.io"), the brand with a generic word ("the Search Insider blog"), and a person's name when the person is the brand. A link whose text is the full address, such as "https://searchinsider.io," is a naked URL anchor instead.
Why do branded anchors matter for SEO?
Branded anchors matter because they are the way people most naturally link to a business, which makes them the safest anchor text a brand can collect. A writer referring to a company uses its name. A writer only uses "best running shoes" as the anchor for a shoe store if someone asked them to.
Google reads anchor text as a description of the linked page [4]. For a homepage, the brand name is usually the most accurate description there is. Branded anchors also connect the brand name to the site in every place it is cited, which matters for how search engines and AI systems recognize a brand as an entity.
Are branded anchors safe?
Yes. Branded anchors are the lowest-risk type of anchor text. Google's link spam policy names "links with optimized anchor text in articles, guest posts, or press releases distributed on other sites" as a problem [3], and a plain brand name is not optimized anchor text in that sense.
Branded anchors became the default advice after Google's Penguin update in April 2012, which targeted manipulative links and hit sites relying on keyword anchors [5][1]. Ahrefs recommends using branded anchors when you control the link text, particularly "for author bios" [1].
Two situations are less clear-cut:
- Brand plus keyword. An anchor like "Acme Plumbing emergency plumber Denver" contains the brand but exists to place the keyword. Search Insider treats it as a keyword anchor with a brand attached, not a branded anchor.
- A brand name that is a keyword. A business called "Denver Plumbing" gets an exact match anchor every time someone links its name. That is natural, and it is explained in the next section.
What is the difference between branded, exact match and naked URL anchors?
Branded, exact match and naked URL anchors differ in what the link text contains: the brand name, the target keyword, or the address itself. For a running shoe store called Stride targeting "running shoes":
| Anchor type | Example anchor text | What it signals |
|---|---|---|
| Branded | Stride | The brand's name |
| Exact match | running shoes | The target keyword, word for word |
| Naked URL | stride.com | The address |
| Generic | click here | Nothing about the destination |
| Brand plus keyword | Stride running shoes | Brand and keyword together |
Google's link best practices favor anchor text that is "descriptive, reasonably concise, and relevant" and list vague anchors such as "click here," "read more" and "website" as poor choices [4]. A brand name is short and describes the destination, so it fits that guidance for links to a homepage.
What if your brand name is a keyword?
If your brand name is also a keyword, your branded anchors will count as exact match anchors in most backlink tools, and that is not a problem in itself. A company called "Denver Plumbing" collects "Denver Plumbing" anchors because that is its name, not because anyone is gaming the link.
This is the case most anchor text advice ignores. Tools classify anchors by matching text, so a keyword-named brand can show a very high exact match share and look "over-optimized" on a dashboard. Search Insider's view is that intent is what Google's policy is written around [3], and an anchor that is simply the company's name was chosen by the linking writer, not optimized by the business.
What still matters is how those links were obtained. Paid or exchanged links remain link spam whatever their anchor text says [3].
What percentage of anchors should be branded?
There is no correct percentage of branded anchors, and Google has never published one. Search Insider found no Google document that sets a target share for any type of anchor text. Figures circulated in SEO guides are rules of thumb, not measurements of what Google rewards.
Ahrefs' advice after studying 384,614 pages was to stop managing ratios entirely: "Don't try to manipulate your anchor text ratios at all" [1]. A profile shaped to hit a branded target is as manufactured as one shaped to hit a keyword target. For a real business that earns links over time, branded anchors usually end up the largest group on their own, because that is how people refer to businesses.
How do you check your branded anchors?
To check your branded anchors, export the anchor text report for your domain from a backlink tool and group the anchors into brand, URL, keyword, generic and other. Count by referring domain, not by link, so a single sitewide link does not dominate the result.
When grouping, include every way people write your brand:
- The name with and without spaces ("Search Insider," "SearchInsider").
- The name with the domain ending ("SearchInsider.io").
- Common misspellings and abbreviations.
- Founder or author names where the person is closely tied to the brand.
Then read the keyword and brand plus keyword groups closely. A cluster of brand plus keyword anchors from guest posts or press releases is the pattern Google's spam policy describes [3], even though each one contains the brand name.
How did branded anchors become the standard advice?
Branded anchors became the standard advice after Google's Penguin update made keyword-heavy anchor profiles risky. Once keyword anchors became a liability, the brand name was left as the default safe choice.
2012: Penguin
Google launched Penguin on April 24, 2012, against link schemes and manipulative links, affecting about 3.1% of queries [5]. Google said it would change the way it handled anchor text [2], and sites that had been "overly-aggressive with their exact-match anchor text links saw their rankings tank overnight" [1]. Penguin shifted attention from the quantity of links to their quality [6].
2016: Penguin joins the core algorithm
On September 23, 2016, Penguin became part of Google's core algorithm and started running in real time [5]. Branded anchors remained the low-risk choice for any link a brand has a hand in.
When should you use branded anchors?
Use branded anchors whenever you have a say in the link text and the link points to your homepage or to the brand as a whole:
- Author bios on guest articles and contributor profiles [1].
- Business directories and profiles, where the listing name is the brand.
- Press materials sent to journalists, so the easy link to copy is the brand name.
- Partner and supplier pages listing your company.
For links to a specific product or article, a short description of that page, which may include the brand, is often more useful to readers than the brand alone. When someone else writes the link, let them choose. An unlinked brand mention that becomes a link with the writer's own wording is a branded anchor at its most natural.