⚓What anchors should you use for your press release?
The anchor mix that helps you rank without waving a Penguin-shaped flag at Google. With industry data on what most releases actually use.
Table of contents · 7 sections+
Anchor text is the single easiest thing to get wrong in a link building campaign. It's also the thing most likely to trigger algorithmic scrutiny. If your press release campaign is going to move rankings without getting your site quietly buried, the anchor mix matters as much as the placements themselves.
Quick refresher on what anchor text does
Anchor text is the clickable text of a link. Google uses it as one signal of what the target page is about. If a thousand pages link to yours with the phrase "best CRM for realtors," that's a strong hint your page is about that topic. It's also a strong hint that someone is manipulating the profile — because natural links overwhelmingly don't look like that.
The industry-standard target mix
A composite of guidance from Ahrefs, Backlinko, Moz, and Orbink's 2025 anchor benchmark study (600+ campaigns) lands on roughly the following ratios for a healthy, low-risk profile:
| Anchor type | Target % | Example (for "Acme CRM") |
|---|---|---|
| Branded | 50-70% | Acme, Acme CRM, Acme.com |
| Naked URL | 10-15% | https://acme.com |
| Generic | 10-15% | read the study, click here, this page |
| Partial-match | 5-10% | the CRM Acme built for realtors |
| Exact-match keyword | 1-3% | best CRM for realtors |
The single most important number in that table is the last one. An Ahrefs analysis of 384,000 top-ranking pages found the mean exact-match anchor ratio was essentially zero. Top-ranking pages don't need keyword-stuffed anchors. Sites trying to game rankings tend to overshoot exact-match to 3%, 5%, 10%+ — and that's the pattern SpamBrain has been trained on for a decade.
What real, earned link profiles look like
Sites that grow through organic mentions rather than paid link building tend to have wildly branded-heavy profiles. Orbink's data suggests naturally earned profiles often exceed 70% branded and naked URL anchors combined.
This is what you're trying to imitate. Not because Google demands it as such — it doesn't. But because the algorithm is trained to spot anything that doesn't look like this.
Specifically for press releases
Press releases magnify anchor risk because they concentrate a lot of links into a short window with similar content. A single campaign of 100 placements can shift your profile noticeably. The safe play:
Anchor per placement, not per campaign
Don't use the same anchor on every placement. Rotate. Our own recommendation for a 100-placement campaign: 60-70 branded variations, 10-15 naked URL, 10-15 generic, 5-10 partial-match, 1-3 exact-match. Nothing more concentrated than that.
Include one authority link out
Add one link from your release to an authoritative external source — a government stat page, an academic paper, a Wikipedia entry. This makes the release look like real journalism to editors and quietly boosts the entire piece's credibility signals.
Vary the target URL
Sending all 100 links to your homepage is a footprint. Split across 2-4 relevant target pages (product page, feature page, resource page, homepage). Google's systems interpret varied targets as more organic.
What most vendors actually do (industry snapshot)
We sampled anchor patterns from six competing press release services across Q3 2025. The pattern was consistent and concerning:
| Vendor tier | Typical exact-match % | Typical branded % |
|---|---|---|
| Cheap ($20-50 packages) | 40-70% | 10-20% |
| Mid-market ($100-300) | 15-30% | 30-50% |
| Premium ($500+) | 3-8% | 55-70% |
| Us (DoFollow Press Release) | 1-3% | 60-70% |
Cheap packages often use whatever anchor the customer submitted, verbatim, on every placement. This is why $30 "press release + 500 backlinks" deals look like magic and end in deindexed target pages six months later.
Niche-specific adjustments
The 1-3% exact-match ceiling isn't universal. Highly competitive commercial niches (law, finance, insurance, some SaaS categories) tolerate a slightly higher exact-match ratio — up to 5% — because the referring domain authority tends to be higher and the algorithm expects more competitive anchor patterns. Low-competition editorial niches should stay well under 1%. When in doubt, err on the branded side.
How to audit your current profile in 15 minutes
- →Open Ahrefs → Site Explorer → your domain → Backlinks → Anchors report.
- →Group anchors by type: branded, naked URL, generic, partial-match, exact-match.
- →Calculate percentages against total referring pages.
- →Compare against the target table above.
- →If exact-match is over 5%, pause aggressive anchors and let earned/branded links dilute the profile.
Related
Erin Herny
Erin runs editorial at DoFollow Press Release. Before that, she spent seven years placing links for SaaS and fintech brands at two boutique SEO agencies. She has personally reviewed more than 4,000 press releases and still gets angry at buried leads.
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