Q: What anchor text should cluster articles use when linking back to the pillar?

Q: What anchor text should cluster articles use when linking back to the pillar?

Short answer: descriptive, varied, and natural, never the same exact-match phrase 30 times. Linking back to a "keto diet" pillar with the literal anchor "keto diet" from every article looks engineered and flattens the signal.

The goal of cluster-to-pillar links is to tell search engines these pages belong together AND to pass context about what the pillar covers. Robotic repetition does the first job but wastes the second.

In practice: vary the anchor around the pillar's theme:
— "a complete keto guide"
— "the basics of ketogenic eating"
— "how keto works"
Keep them relevant; don't randomize into nonsense. And make sure the pillar links back down to each cluster article so the relationship is bidirectional.

Questions on anchors? Send them in.