Definition
An anchor list is the planned set of anchor texts to be used across a link-building campaign for a given target page or site, together with the intended proportion of each type — branded, naked URL, generic, partial-match and exact-match. It is a planning artefact in structured link building: rather than deciding anchors link by link, the practitioner defines a distribution up front that is meant to resemble a natural, earned link profile.
The rationale is that real editorial links, aggregated, produce a characteristic anchor distribution heavily weighted toward brand names, URLs and generic phrases, with exact-match commercial anchors rare. A link profile that inverts this — mostly exact-match money-keyword anchors pointing at commercial pages — is a classic manipulation signal, so an anchor list is an attempt to build links deliberately while keeping the aggregate profile within the range that looks organic.
In context
For iGaming affiliates competing on commercial terms, the temptation is to point exact-match anchors like "best casino bonus" at money pages, and doing so at any scale builds exactly the footprint search engines act on. An anchor list that keeps exact-match anchors to a small single-digit percentage, leads with branded and URL anchors, and uses partial-match and topical phrases for the rest is the safer structure, though it also means each individual link passes less of the specific keyword signal.
The honest limitation of anchor-list planning is that it is still an attempt to simulate an organic profile through built links, and search engines have become good at distinguishing simulated distributions from earned ones through other signals — the nature of the linking sites, the timing and pattern of acquisition, the surrounding content. The most durable version of "anchor strategy" is to earn editorial links and let the anchors fall where the linking writers choose to put them, then audit the resulting profile for any concentration that needs correcting, rather than engineering the distribution from the start.
Worked example
An affiliate audits its backlink profile and finds exact-match anchors at 38% — a manipulation range. It sets an internal rule that no more than 5% of new links may carry exact-match anchors, shifts acquisition toward earned mentions, and over eight months the exact-match share falls to 11% and rankings recover.
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