Internal Link Anchor Text Analyser
Paste a page's HTML and your website address. You get every internal anchor text with a count, the pages each one points to, and links that use "click here" or have no text.
Links that start with / or have no domain count as internal. Add your address so full links to your own site are counted too.
Worked examples
Generic anchors
<a href="/about">Click here</a> <a href="/blog/post">Read more</a>
Warning: 2 links use a generic anchor such as "click here" or "read more".
Say what the page is about, for example "About our team".
One anchor, two pages
<a href="/shoes/">Running shoes</a> <a href="/sale">Running shoes</a>
Warning: The anchor "Running shoes" points to 2 different pages.
Make the sale link say something different, such as "Running shoes in the sale".
About Internal Link Anchor Text Analyser
The clickable words in a link are called the anchor text. They tell readers where the link will take them, and they give search engines a clue about the page at the other end. A link that says "how to measure a window for blinds" is far more useful than one that says "click here", and a link made only of an image, with no description, has no name at all for a screen reader.
Paste the HTML of a page and your website address, and this analyser pulls out every internal link. It groups identical anchor texts, counts them and shows how many different pages each one leads to. It flags generic anchors such as "read more", links with no text, web addresses used as text and very long anchors. It also points out an anchor text that leads to several different pages, which blurs what each page is about.
How to use Internal Link Anchor Text Analyser
- Copy the HTML of the page you want to check.
- Paste it into the first box and type your site address in the second so full links to your own pages count as internal.
- Read the checks, then go through the table of anchor texts, starting with those used most.
- Rewrite generic or ambiguous anchors on your page so each one describes its destination.
Common uses
- Improving the menus and related-article links on a blog
- Checking that every link on a landing page has useful words
- Finding links that give no clue to a screen reader user
- Spotting when two pages are linked with exactly the same words
Frequently asked questions
What counts as an internal link?
Any link that stays on your site: a link starting with a slash, a relative link, or a full link to your own domain. Links to email addresses, phone numbers and sections of the same page are left out. Links to other sites are counted but not analysed.
Is it bad to use the same anchor text twice?
Not if both links go to the same page. It becomes a problem when one anchor text points to different pages, because readers and search engines cannot tell which page the words describe. The analyser lists those cases.
Should every anchor contain a keyword?
No. Write anchors that describe the destination in natural words. Forcing the same keyword into every link looks odd to readers and gives no benefit.
Why is read more flagged?
Because it says nothing out of context. Screen reader users often list all the links on a page, and a list of ten "read more" links is useless. Put the topic into the link, such as "Read the full delivery policy".
Does the order of links on the page matter?
The tool looks at what the links say, not where they sit. Where a link appears can affect how many people click it, so put the most important ones near the top of the content.