Anchor Text Auditor
Extract every link from a page with its anchor text, location and attributes; flag generic anchors, empty links, missing noopener and internal nofollow.
How to use the anchor text auditor
- Enter your domain so the tool can tell internal links from external ones. Relative links such as /about/ always count as internal.
- Paste the page source. The audit runs immediately and updates as you edit the HTML, which is handy when you are fixing anchors in place.
- Read the summary. The counts that matter most are links in the main content and links with generic or empty anchors.
- Use the filter to show only internal links, only external links, or only links with issues. Location tells you whether a link sits in the body, header, navigation, footer or sidebar.
- Copy the table as CSV to work through the fixes in a spreadsheet or share them with a writer.
What each issue means
- Generic anchor. “Click here”, “read more” and similar say nothing about the destination. Search engines use anchor text to understand what the linked page is about, and screen reader users often navigate by links alone.
- Empty anchor or image with no alt. A link with no text and no image alt is invisible to assistive technology and gives search engines nothing.
- Placeholder # or javascript: link. Usually a template leftover. Either point it somewhere or remove it.
- Same anchor points to several URLs. If “SEO services” links to three different pages, neither readers nor crawlers know which one is the SEO services page.
- Internal nofollow. There is almost never a reason to nofollow your own pages. It stops link equity flowing without keeping the page out of the index.
- target=_blank without noopener. A security and performance detail: without rel=”noopener” the opened page can access the opener window.
- External http link. Points to an insecure URL that probably redirects. Update it to https.
- Raw URL as anchor. A bare URL is readable but wastes the chance to describe the destination.
Choosing anchor text that works
The best anchor is the phrase a reader would use to describe the destination in that sentence. “Our local SEO service covers Google Business Profile setup” tells everyone where the link goes. Vary the wording across the site: “local SEO service”, “help with local rankings”, “Google Business Profile optimisation” can all point to the same page and together they describe it better than one exact phrase repeated fifty times.
Position matters as much as wording. A link in the body of an article, surrounded by relevant sentences, carries more meaning than the same link in a footer list. The tool’s location column exists so you can see how many of your links are contextual. The internal linking guide covers how to structure hubs and supporting pages so that contextual links happen naturally.
Frequently asked questions
Should every internal link use the target page’s keyword?
No. Exact-match anchors everywhere look manipulative and read badly. Mix exact, partial and descriptive anchors, and let the sentence decide.
How many internal links should a page have?
As many as are genuinely useful at the point where they appear. A long guide might have ten; a short service page might have three. The audit flags pages with fewer than two contextual internal links because that usually means opportunities were missed.
Does the tool follow the links to check they work?
No. It runs entirely in your browser and cannot fetch other pages. Use a crawler for status checks; use this tool for anchor wording, placement and attributes.
Related tools
Background reading: how to choose anchor text and structure clusters, in the internal linking guide.