Why anchor text determines what keyword your page ranks for

Executive overview

Having more links and higher domain authority than a competitor is not enough to outrank them. The anchor text of those links is what tells Google which keyword your page is relevant to.

If your backlinks collectively point to the wrong keyword, Google will rank you for that keyword — not the one you want.

The case study: client vs competitor

• Client had higher domain rating (37 vs 28) and more backlinks (166 vs 20 referring pages)
• Competitor ranked #1; client was nowhere to be found
• Both sites had identical on-page optimisation for the target keyword (two occurrences each, keyword in title)
• The difference was entirely in anchor text distribution

Why the client wasn't ranking

• 53% of the client's backlinks used the anchor text "Lothian Plumbing Services"
• Google interpreted the site as relevant to that phrase — not "Edinburgh Plumbers"
• The competitor's anchors were generic (domain name, "visit our website"), so Google relied on on-page signals instead
• On-page, the competitor was optimised for "Edinburgh Plumbers" — and that's what ranked

Two options to fix it

1. Build links with anchor text "Edinburgh Plumbers" — but this will likely drop rankings for "Lothian Plumbing Services"
2. Create a new page with a URL targeting "Edinburgh Plumbers" — likely to rank in top 20–50 immediately, then build a few links to push it higher

The core principle

• A page cannot rank for two different keywords if its backlink anchors all point to one of them
• Links override on-page signals when there is a conflict
• Match your anchor text strategy to the keyword you actually want to rank for