Naked Links and SEO: Are Raw URLs Hurting Your Marketing Strategy?
- Jesse Amoako
- Aug 5
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 19
Author: Jesse Amoako
Introduction
A naked link is a hyperlink that uses the URL itself as the anchor text. The link is described as “naked” because the URL is entirely visible to the readers.
While naked links might seem harmless or even convenient, they can influence SEO and the user experience.
So, the question stands: Are raw URLs helping or hurting your digital marketing strategy?
Let’s start from the basics.
What are naked links?
In the sentence "Visit https://www.example.com for more information," the URL "https://www.example.com" is a naked link because it is displayed in its entirety without any accompanying anchor text.
Naked links are more direct, whereas anchor text links provide context and encourage clicks from users (ex,. Read our latest post).
They’ll usually appear in blogs, forums, social media blogs, etc.
Naked Links and SEO: The Pros
Naked links are key to improving a website’s SEO performance. Links are part of the ranking process; the more high-quality links a website receives, the higher the website may rank. This cycle plays a direct role in enhancing a business's performance.
In journalism or scholarly content, naked links can serve as formal citations—making them appropriate and credible.
Naked Links and SEO: The Cons
Long URLs clutter the screen and can be harder to read on mobile devices. Screen readers may also struggle with long, unparsed URLs.
Unlike hyperlinks, naked links are not very user-friendly. Hypertext is more user-friendly as it provides context to the user about what the link is about. Long links can also be challenging for mobile devices, as the screen size is limited and may affect the mobile user’s experience.
Naked links are less appealing visually when used in digital content, specifically if they are not comprehensive and detailed.
Naked Links in Marketing Campaigns
Some influencers use naked links in Instagram bios or YouTube descriptions. Tracking is easier using unique URL slugs. The brand recognition is prioritized over SEO - influencers want users to see and remember the brand name.
Many press release distribution services strip or limit anchor text to avoid spammy practices. Naked links are easier to standardize and they improve transparency where is needed.
Best Practices for Using Links on Your Website
Naked Links have to be used sparingly and strategically.
They should be avoided when optimizing for SEO keywords and building authoritative content. Naked links don’t tell search engines what the page is about, which means you can lose out on SEO benefits.
For example, instead of writing “learn more about our service, visit https://mybrand.com/service”, you could write “ learn more about our digital marketing services”.
This makes the content easier to read and gives search engines context about what’s on the other side of that link.
If someone is reading your content on a phone, a long URL in the middle of a paragraph can be difficult to understand. Descriptive anchor text makes the content smoother, cleaner, and more accessible.
Clear links encourage people to click and explore, which means more time on your website and a lower bounce rate - good signals for SEO.
Tools & Tips to Audit Your Link Usage
It is very important to audit your link usage regularly, not only for SEO health but especially for clarity, accessibility, and branding.
Auditing links help to:
Identify naked links that can be replaced with anchor texts
ensure that you’re linking strategically to important internal pages
Balance the use of branded, keyword anchor texts
fix spammy link patterns.
It makes the website easier to navigate and easier to trust.
Some tools for identifying and analyzing link usage are:
But, even with fancy tools and AI, a manual review of your content can catch subtle link issues that automated scanners can miss.
Conclusion
Naked links have their place, but relying on them too often means missing out on key SEO and user experience benefits. Well-optimized anchor text not only improves your search visibility — it also makes your content clearer, more engaging, and more professional.
Every link is an opportunity - make it count.
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