Anchor Text for Local SEO and AI Search: Types and a Natural Mix

What Google Says Good Anchor Text Looks Like

Google wants anchor text that tells a reader where the link goes. Google's link best practices put it this way. Good anchor text is "descriptive, reasonably concise, and relevant to the page that it's on and to the page it links to."

The same page warns against cramming keywords into links, since keyword stuffing breaks Google's spam policies. Its own test is a good one to remember:

"If it feels like you're forcing keywords into the anchor text, then it's probably too much."

Google also points out that the words before and after a link matter. A plain anchor inside a sentence about roof repair still tells Google what the linked page is about. The anchor doesn't have to carry the whole job.

How AI Search Reads Links, Anchors and Brand Mentions

AI answers work differently from rankings, so it helps to keep the two apart. For Google's rankings, the anchor and the sentence around it both count. AI tools such as Google's AI Overviews, ChatGPT search and Perplexity build answers from whole passages. That's why the sentence around a link likely does more of the work than the anchor itself.

That sentence is where an AI system picks up who you are, what you do, where you do it and why someone mentioned you. For a local business, the "where" is the part most guides skip. The town belongs in the sentence rather than the anchor, because that's what ties your business to the place.

Brand signals also seem to count for more in AI answers than raw link numbers. In a May 2025 Ahrefs study of 75,000 brands, brand mentions across the web tracked AI Overview visibility most closely, at a correlation of 0.664. Branded anchor text came next at 0.527, while total backlinks trailed at 0.218.

In plain terms, the brands that AI Overviews named most often were the ones other websites talked about most. A correlation shows how closely two things rise together, where 1 means they move in perfect step and 0 means no connection. Mentions scored well above backlinks, so being talked about tracked AI visibility far better than simply having more links.

Two caveats before you act on those numbers. They're correlations, not proof that mentions cause visibility. The study also only included sites with a Domain Rating above 40, which is bigger than most local businesses. Treat it as a direction rather than a measurement.

The finding also means an unlinked mention isn't wasted. An unlinked mention is when another website names your business without linking to your site. Local news stories, chamber newsletters and partner articles often do it. Each one still adds to how often your brand shows up, and in what context.

Types of Anchor Text, With Local Examples

Every anchor falls into one of a handful of types. The examples below use a made-up roofer, Bayview Roofing in Newmarket.

Why Local Anchor Text Works Differently

Most anchor text guides assume you're building links through outreach at scale, where you control the wording. Local links work the other way, and that changes what "natural" looks like.

• Your partners write the anchor. The florist who links to you from a wedding guide picks the words. Usually that's your name, or what you did for the couples you both worked with. That variety is exactly what you want, so don't script it away.
• You have fewer links, so each one shows. A local business might have 20 or 30 links from nearby businesses. If ten of them say "best Newmarket roofer", the pattern is obvious to anyone who looks, including Google.
• City names belong where they add meaning. "Bayview Roofing in Newmarket" on a regional event page tells readers something. The same city pasted into every partner's link is the local version of keyword stuffing. Put the town in the sentence instead, where it helps readers and AI answers alike.

Which Anchor Fits Each Kind of Local Link

The kind of link usually decides the anchor for you, which is one more reason not to force it. The ten types of local links explains each kind in more detail.

• Co-written articles: a descriptive phrase from the sentence, like "the arborist who cleared the oak before our roof went on".
• Expert quotes: the person's name, the business name, or both, the way a news story credits a source. How to credit a local expert shows how that attribution is usually written.
• Vendor lists, chamber and directory listings: the business name, because that's what the list is made of.
• Sponsor pages: often a logo, so the image's alt text is the anchor. Your business name is the right alt text.
• Project features: the name plus the trade, like "wiring by Brightline Electric".
• Guest posts: your name in the author note, and at most one descriptive link in the article itself.

What a Natural Local Anchor Mix Looks Like

The safest default is a brand-led link: your business name as the anchor, with your service and your town in the words around it. Google reads both, and AI answers lean on the sentence, so this one pattern serves both.

Here's how that plays out, using my own agency, Surf Sigma, as the example.

Too vague: the name is there, but nothing says what the business does or where.

Read more at Surf Sigma.

Too engineered: every keyword crammed into the anchor, which reads as artificial and leaves a narrow, over-optimized footprint.

best Newmarket local SEO citation audit Google Business Profile agency

Brand-led: the business is the subject, and the sentence carries the rest.

For a practical local SEO audit focused on citation consistency and Google Business Profile issues, Surf Sigma provides a useful framework for small businesses in York Region.

In that last example, the anchor names the business. The words around it tell readers, Google and AI tools the service, the kind of customer and the place. When a partner links to one specific page, a hybrid anchor does the same job in fewer words. "Surf Sigma's local SEO audit" and "Bayview Roofing's storm damage checklist" are two examples.

There's no official ratio beyond that. Google doesn't publish one, and anyone quoting exact percentages is guessing. Most of your anchors should be your business name, often with the town nearby in the sentence. A good share will be descriptive phrases your partners wrote in their own words, and exact keyword anchors should be the smallest slice.

Naked URLs, where the link text is just your web address, belong in the mix too. They show up naturally in directories, social profiles and lists where someone pastes your address. They look natural, but they say nothing about what you do, so the sentence around them has to carry the context.

For a quick check, list your ten most recent links and read only the anchors and the sentences around them. If the anchors sound like search terms and the sentences say nothing about what you did, the mix has drifted.

How to Ask for a Link Without Scripting the Anchor

You can make it easy for a partner to link to you without dictating the words. Send the page you'd like them to link to and one sentence on what it covers. Then let them write the link the way it fits their article.

If a partner asks what the link should say, suggest your business name or the topic of the page. Better still, ask them to say what you did and where. A sentence like "Bayview Roofing replaced our flashing after the March storm in Newmarket" gives readers and AI tools far more than a bare link. Asking every partner for the same keyword anchor turns a relationship into a campaign. Paying for particular anchor wording turns it into a paid link.

Anchor Text Mistakes Local Businesses Make

• The same service and city anchor from every partner. One is fine; a dozen identical ones is a pattern.
• Keyword-stuffed footer credits. "Website by X, the best Newmarket web designer" on every page of a client's site is both a sitewide link and a stuffed anchor. Google's spam policies call out links spread through footers and templates, as the arrangements to avoid explains.
• Generic anchors on your strongest links. "Click here" wastes a link that could have said what your page is about.
• Links chained together. Several links in a row, with no words between them, make each one harder to read and lose the context around it.

Anchor Text Questions From Local Businesses

What anchor text should a local business get most?

Your business name. It's what vendor lists, chamber listings, directories and most partners use anyway, and it reads naturally in almost any sentence. Descriptive phrases your partners write in their own words come next. Keyword and city anchors should be the smallest part of the mix.

Should partner links include my city?

Sometimes, when it fits the sentence. "Bayview Roofing in Newmarket" on a regional page tells readers where you are. The same city in every link reads as stuffing, so let partners add it when it matters to their readers, not because you asked.

Does anchor text matter for AI search?

Yes, but the sentence around it likely matters more. AI tools build answers from passages. A link whose sentence names your business, your service and your town gives them more to work with than a keyword anchor alone. In the research so far, branded anchors and brand mentions track AI visibility more closely than link counts.

Can too much exact-match anchor text hurt a local site?

Yes. Google treats keyword stuffing, including in anchor text, as a spam problem, and a small local link profile makes a repeated keyword easy to spot. If most of your anchors read like search terms, vary the new ones and let partners write in their own words.

Should I ask partners to change the anchor text they used?

Only when it's wrong: a misspelled name, an old business name, or a link to the wrong page. Otherwise leave it. The variety that comes from partners writing their own links is part of what makes the profile look real.

Finding Partners Who Will Link in Their Own Words

The easiest way to get natural anchor text is to get links from businesses with a real reason to mention you. Finding those businesses nearby is the slow part, since few of them say publicly that they want partners.

Local Link Match finds the businesses near you whose services sit next to yours. It weighs how well you fit and how established each site is in your area.

You can check which businesses near you fit yours before signing up.

Sign up when you're ready to start with your first partner.