What is a naked URL anchor?
A naked URL anchor is a link where the clickable text is the web address itself. In "Full results are at https://example.com/study", the anchor text is the URL, so the link is a naked URL anchor.
<!-- Naked URL anchor -->
<a href="https://example.com/study">https://example.com/study</a>
<!-- Descriptive anchor for the same page -->
<a href="https://example.com/study">the full study results</a>Naked URL anchors come in several forms: the full address with https://, the address with www., the bare domain such as example.com, or a domain plus path. All of them count as the same anchor type. Ahrefs lists naked URLs as one of its seven anchor text types [1], and Wikipedia calls the same thing a "naked link" [2].
Where do naked URL links come from?
Naked URL links come from places where people paste an address rather than write a sentence around it. The most common sources are:
- Citations and source lists at the end of articles, reports and Wikipedia-style references.
- Directory and profile listings, where a "Website" field displays the business's address.
- Forum posts, comments and social posts, where platforms often turn a pasted address into a link automatically.
- Press coverage that names a source by its domain.
Because those are everyday ways of linking, naked URL anchors make up part of almost any natural backlink profile.
Are naked URL anchors good or bad for SEO?
Naked URL anchors are neutral for SEO in a backlink profile and usually a missed opportunity on your own pages. As backlinks, they are a natural, low-risk anchor type. As links you write yourself, they give readers less context than a description would.
| Where the naked URL anchor is | Effect | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Backlinks from other sites | Natural, low risk | Leave them alone |
| Your own internal links | Weak description of the destination | Rewrite as descriptive text |
| Citations and source lists you publish | Readers expect an address there | Fine as is |
Google's guidance on anchor text asks for text that is "descriptive, reasonably concise, and relevant to the page that it's on and to the page it links to" [3]. A long address rarely meets that test. A short domain can, when the domain is the name readers know.
Do naked URL backlinks help rankings?
Naked URL backlinks count as links like any other, but no published study isolates how much naked URL anchors help rankings. Ahrefs' 2019 study of 384,614 ranking pages reported correlations for exact-match, phrase-match, partial-match and random anchors, and did not report a separate figure for naked URLs [1].
What a naked URL anchor says depends on the address. A naked URL contains whatever words are in the domain and path, so example.com/running-shoes carries the words "running shoes" in its anchor. Google's link best practices do not address naked URL anchors specifically [3], so there is no published statement on whether Google reads words inside a naked URL the way it reads ordinary anchor text. Any claim about how much a naked URL anchor is "worth" compared with a branded anchor is a guess.
What is the difference between a naked URL anchor and a branded anchor?
The difference between a naked URL anchor and a branded anchor is that a naked URL anchor shows the web address, while a branded anchor shows the brand's name. "example.com" is a naked URL anchor; "Example" or "Example Inc." is a branded anchor.
The line blurs when a brand's name is its domain, as with businesses that call themselves "Example.com". SEO tools generally classify by what the text looks like: anything that parses as an address is counted as a naked URL. Both types are considered natural and safe, and both tie the link to the site rather than to a keyword.
A naked URL anchor also differs from a generic anchor. A generic anchor such as "click here" says nothing about the destination. A naked URL at least says where the link goes.
How has the role of naked URL anchors changed?
Naked URL anchors have always been a common way to link, but they became a deliberate part of link building after Google's Penguin update in 2012 pushed SEOs away from exact-match anchors. Since then, they have been treated as a safe anchor type in a mixed profile.
2012: Penguin and the mixed anchor profile
Google launched Penguin on April 24, 2012, targeting link manipulation such as link buying and automated links [4]. After Penguin, the advice shifted toward "a diversified link profile, which has a mix of anchor text and other types of links" [2]. Naked URLs, branded anchors and generic anchors became the standard way to dilute a keyword-heavy profile.
2016: manipulative links discounted
From September 23, 2016, Penguin ran in real time and discounted manipulative links, ignoring them rather than counting them [4]. That reduced the payoff of engineering any anchor mix, naked URLs included.
2019: naked URLs in anchor taxonomies
Ahrefs' 2019 anchor text guide listed naked URLs as one of seven anchor types, with the example of a full product page address used as the link text [1].
How do you find naked URL anchors in your backlinks?
To find naked URL anchors in your backlinks, open the anchors report in a backlink tool and filter for anchors containing your domain name, www. or http. Group the results with your branded anchors when judging how natural your anchor profile looks.
Check two things while you are there:
- Naked URLs pointing to old addresses. A naked URL anchor showing an old domain or
http://address means the link points to a redirect. Ask the site to update it if it is an important link. - Repeated identical naked URLs from many unrelated sites. One naked URL anchor is normal. The same address in the same spot on hundreds of low-quality sites suggests automated link building, which Google's spam policies list as link spam [5].
When should you use a naked URL as anchor text?
You should use a naked URL as anchor text when readers need to see the address itself: in citations and reference lists, in printed or spoken material, and when telling people a short domain to remember. Everywhere else on your own site, a short description of the destination works better for readers and for Google [3].
When requesting a link, do not dictate the anchor. If a site asks how to link to you, a branded anchor or your naked domain are both natural choices. Do not swap a naked URL for a keyword anchor to chase rankings; keyword-stuffed anchors are a violation of Google's spam policies [3].