The anchor text of internal links pointing to a page uses terms that do not appear in the page's body copy, or the body targets a topic the anchors never mention. Trial exhibits describe Google's topicality score (T*) as a combination of anchors, body and clicks. When the anchor and body inputs disagree, the page sends conflicting relevance evidence. This is a proxy: T* itself cannot be observed.
Why does internal anchor text and body copy describe different topics (t*) matter for AI search?
Trial exhibits describe Google's topicality score (T*) as a combination of anchors, body and clicks. When the anchor and body inputs disagree, the page sends conflicting relevance evidence. This is a proxy: T* itself cannot be observed.
How do you fix it?
Pick the topic the page should rank for, then rewrite the internal anchors pointing to it so they describe that topic in varied natural phrasing, and make sure the body uses the same core terms in its heading and opening paragraph.
How do you find it on your site?
- Crawl the site and export all internal links with anchor text and target URL.
- For each priority page, list the top five anchor phrases pointing to it.
- Extract the page's title, H1 and first 200 words and check whether each anchor phrase's core terms appear there.
- Cross-check against the page's top queries in Search Console; flag pages where neither anchors nor queries are reflected in the body.
Which ranking and citation factors does it touch?
Written for the T* (Topicality) page (evidence: Trial or leak evidence). Google has not documented this system in a way a site can test directly, so this check measures a proxy for it, not the system itself.
What is the impact?
Indirect. Improves consistency of relevance inputs for the page's target queries. Estimate only: effect size is not measurable from outside Google.
What is the evidence?
DOJ exhibit PXR0357 and PXR0356 (records of 2025 calls with Google engineers Pandu Nayak and HJ Kim) describe T* and the ABC signals; Search Engine Land's May 2025 analysis summarises them.
Sources
Frequently asked questions about internal anchor text and body copy describe different topics (t*)
What does "Internal anchor text and body copy describe different topics (T*)" mean?
The anchor text of internal links pointing to a page uses terms that do not appear in the page's body copy, or the body targets a topic the anchors never mention.
How do you fix internal anchor text and body copy describe different topics (T*)?
Pick the topic the page should rank for, then rewrite the internal anchors pointing to it so they describe that topic in varied natural phrasing, and make sure the body uses the same core terms in its heading and opening paragraph.