Anchor Text Audit: How to Analyze and Improve Your Link Profile

How to Audit Your Anchor Text Profile

An anchor text audit shows how people and pages describe the URLs they link to. It helps you find weak internal links, broken destinations, and backlink patterns that deserve a closer look. This guide is a practical companion to our complete anchor text guide, which covers definitions, types, and everyday best practices.

The goal is not to force a perfect percentage of anchor types into the internal links on the pages. Instead, make sure the wording, destination, and surrounding content give users an accurate, helpful expectation.

Choose the Links You Will Audit

Start with two separate exports:

1. Internal links: Crawl your site with Screaming Frog or a comparable crawler and export source URL, destination URL, anchor text, and status code.
2. Backlinks: Export referring page, target page, anchor text, follow status, and first/last-seen dates from Ahrefs, Semrush, or Google Search Console.

Keep these lists separate. You control internal links and can update them directly; external links need a different response and should be judged in the context of the referring page.

Categorize Every Anchor Text

Group the anchor text for each important target URL into useful categories:

• Branded: your company or product name.
• Naked URL: a visible URL such as example.com/page.
• Generic: phrases such as “learn more” or “this article.”
• Topical or partial-match: a natural phrase describing the destination.
• Exact-match: the target keyword used without additional context.
• Image link: use the image alt text as the effective anchor.

Look at the wording manually before drawing conclusions. A phrase that appears generic in a spreadsheet may be clear and descriptive when its surrounding sentence is included.

Find the Pages and Patterns That Need Attention

Prioritize your review around pages that matter to the site: service pages, product pages, pillar content, and articles that are close to ranking well. Then look for these issues:

Repeated or Forced Wording

Repeated exact-match text across unrelated pages can look unnatural and usually produces poor copy. Replace it with specific language that fits the sentence and accurately describes the destination.

Generic Internal Links

“Click here” and “read more” are not always wrong, but they are weak signposts when the surrounding sentence does not explain the destination. Improve the link text or the nearby context so the purpose is clear, which also supports link-purpose accessibility guidance.

Wrong, Redirected, or Broken Destinations

Resolve internal links that return errors, point through unnecessary redirects, or no longer match the linked phrase. A clear anchor should lead directly to the page a reader expects.

Irrelevant External Backlinks

Do not treat every unfamiliar backlink as harmful. Investigate links only when there is clear evidence of manipulation, spam, or a manual action. Google recommends using the Disavow Tool only when you have a substantial number of artificial, spammy, or low-quality links and cannot get them removed.

Audit Internal Links for a Content Cluster

For each pillar page, list its core spoke articles and check that the links make the relationship clear. A pillar about anchor text should link to an audit article with wording such as “anchor text audit workflow,” while the audit article should link back to the broader guide for foundational concepts.

Use this same approach with your internal-linking strategy: connect pages because they genuinely answer the next question a reader has, not simply because they share a keyword.

Create a Practical Fix List

Record each issue with its source page, destination page, current anchor, recommended replacement, and priority. Fix the highest-impact internal links first:

1. Broken links and links pointing to irrelevant pages.
2. Important pages that have few or no contextual internal links.
3. Generic anchors where users cannot identify the destination.
4. Repetitive wording across a cluster of related pages.

After publishing changes, recrawl the site to confirm that destinations resolve, anchor text is visible in the rendered HTML, and important pages remain reachable through contextual links.

Anchor Text Audit Checklist

• Export internal and external link data separately.
• Review links by target URL, not only by site-wide totals.
• Categorize the anchor language and read it in context.
• Fix broken, redirected, misleading, and overly generic internal links.
• Add useful two-way links between pillar pages and spokes.
• Avoid manufactured ratios or mass exact-match replacements.
• Recheck the crawl after updates and repeat quarterly.

FAQ

How often should I audit anchor text?

Review key internal-linking clusters after substantial content changes and complete a broader audit quarterly or when you see a meaningful ranking or crawling issue.

Is there a perfect anchor text ratio?

No. Search engines do not publish a required ratio. Relevance, clarity, and a natural link profile matter more than copying a fixed percentage.

Should I change every generic anchor?

No. Change it when a reader cannot determine the destination from the link and its surrounding context. The goal is clarity, not mechanical repetition of keywords.