Short answer: decide the target page first, then let the anchor follow the context of the page that hosts the link. Anchors chosen from a spreadsheet of keywords tend to read badly and look repetitive. Anchors that fit the sentence they sit in rarely cause trouble.
Choose target pages before anchors
List the pages on the client site that should receive links, and give each one a reason. For a local business the list is usually short:
- The home page, which represents the brand
- The main service pages that earn the money
- The location page for each branch or service area
- One or two useful guides that a local site might genuinely cite
Not every page deserves a link. A page that is thin, slow or out of date will not benefit, and a link to it wastes a placement. Check each target page before outreach begins.
Think in anchor families
Rather than a list of exact phrases, plan families and mix them:
- Brand. The business name. This is the safest and the most natural.
- Naked URL. The web address written out, which hosts often prefer.
- Generic. Words like "their website" or "read more here".
- Descriptive. A short phrase that describes what the page offers, such as "emergency plumbing in a named city".
- Partial match. A phrase that contains the service or city but is not the exact keyword.
- Exact match. The target keyword itself. Use sparingly.
There is no magic ratio, and anyone who quotes one as a rule is guessing. The principle is variety that matches how real people link to real businesses. Most of those links use the brand name or a plain phrase.
Let the host sentence decide
The host page has its own topic, voice and sentence structure. An anchor that works in a roofing blog may be awkward in a chamber of commerce news item. Supply two or three options, and accept that the host may choose something else or edit the text. Forcing a specific phrase through a reluctant editor makes the link look planted, and it can end the working relationship.
Where local words belong
For local work, the city or neighborhood often appears in the surrounding text instead of inside the anchor. A sentence that names the town, the service and the business, and then links the business name, tells a reader and a search engine the same thing without squeezing everything into the anchor. Google says local results depend on relevance, distance and prominence, and the text around a link helps establish relevance in a natural way.
Pace and record
Spread placements across weeks, and keep a table of every anchor already used for each client. When you plan the next batch, check the table first. Repeating the same phrase over and over is the easiest pattern to avoid and one of the easiest to spot. If a provider handles your outreach, ask for the anchor used on every row of the report, and approve the general approach before work starts. The map pack link building page explains how this ties into local profile work.
Honest limits
Careful anchor planning reduces one kind of risk. It does not make a link scheme safe. Buying or exchanging links for ranking purposes can go against Google's spam policies on link schemes, however natural the anchors look. Links are one signal among many, and the outcome depends on the client's site, competition and category. The local link building service guide covers the questions to ask any provider about this.
Search guidelines and tactics change, and Google can revalue or ignore links at any time. Nothing here is a promise of rankings, traffic or leads, and results are never assured.