Exact Matches in A Tags counts how many times your target query appears inside the visible anchor text of links on the page. It returns a whole-number occurrence count summed across every anchor — a descriptive tally of how your links are labeled, not a target to inflate.
| Factor ID | RG-KWD-009 |
|---|---|
| Family | Keyword Usage & Density |
| Measurement | Exact-query occurrence count |
| Measured zone | Anchor text |
What it measures
This factor counts exact-query pattern occurrences within the visible text of links. RankGear looks only at the words a reader actually sees inside each link label — the text between the opening and closing anchor tags — and tallies how often the query pattern appears there across the whole page.
How RankGear measures it
RankGear parses the anchor elements from the script-free body of the page, then converts each space in the query into an optional single-character separator. It applies the resulting case-insensitive expression to each anchor’s text and sums all matches into a single count. Because each space becomes an optional separator, a query like blue widgets is matched whether the anchor reads “blue widgets”, “blue-widgets”, or “bluewidgets”, regardless of letter case.
What RankGear looks for
Query: blue widgets
Pattern: blue.?widgets (case-insensitive)
Matched against the visible text inside each anchor:
<a href="/pricing">Compare blue widgets pricing</a> → 1 match
<a href="/guide">the blue-widgets setup guide</a> → 1 match
Total = sum of matches across every <a> on the pageHow to optimize it
Use descriptive anchor text that includes the exact query only when it accurately identifies the linked destination and genuinely helps navigation. Treat this factor as an observation of how your links read, not a quota to hit — the goal is anchors that tell a reader (and a crawler) where the link goes, not anchors stuffed with a repeated phrase.
Important considerations
- It measures the anchor text a reader sees, not the
hrefURL — a matching filename or slug in the link target does not count. - Repeated links are counted separately, so the same query in five links contributes five to the tally.
- An anchor may contain extra words around the match; the pattern only needs to appear somewhere inside the link text.
- Avoid exact-match internal-link repetition that reads unnaturally — over-optimized anchors help neither readers nor rankings.
- This is a correlation-based signal within a measured result set, not a cause of ranking. A higher count does not make a page rank; it describes one aspect of how the page links.
Related factors
Part of the Factors reference · how RankGear measures · glossary.