Free Anchor Text Analyzer
Extract and categorize every anchor text on any page. Understand your link text distribution — descriptive, branded, generic, naked URL, image links, and exact or partial matches for an optional target keyword.
Enter a URL to analyze
See a full breakdown of anchor text types used across all links on the page.
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Why Anchor Text Distribution Matters
The mix of anchor text types on and pointing to your pages tells search engines how relevant, authoritative, and natural your link profile is. An over-optimized profile can trigger algorithmic penalties; too many generic anchors wastes ranking signal.
Keyword Relevance Signals
Exact-match and topical anchor texts help Google understand what a page is about. A natural mix, rather than keyword-stuffed anchors, supports topical authority.
Over-Optimisation Risk
A backlink profile dominated by exact-match anchors is a Penguin signal. This tool helps you audit on-page anchors before building links.
Example Anchor Distribution
How to Use
Four steps from URL to full anchor text breakdown.
Enter URL
Paste the full page URL including https://.
Fetch Page
We fetch the page HTML like a crawler (without running JavaScript) and extract its <a> links.
Categorize
Each anchor is classified with simple rules: descriptive, branded, generic, naked URL, image or empty — and exact/partial match when you give a target keyword.
Audit & Optimize
Use the distribution chart and table to optimize your internal linking.
Use Cases
Anchor text analysis is critical across all SEO workflows.
E-commerce
Audit product and category pages for over-optimized anchor text patterns that could trigger penalties.
Link Building
Before pitching guest posts, understand the anchor text landscape of a page to avoid over-optimisation.
Content Audits
Identify pages with too many generic or empty anchors — easy wins for internal linking improvements.
Penalty Recovery
After a Google penalty, audit the anchors on your own pages to spot unnatural, keyword-stuffed patterns to fix.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is anchor text analysis?
Anchor text analysis examines the visible, clickable text used in hyperlinks. The distribution of anchor text types (exact-match, branded, generic, etc.) affects how search engines interpret the relevance and authority of a page.
What is exact-match anchor text?
Exact-match anchor text uses the target keyword verbatim (e.g. "best running shoes" linking to a page about running shoes). It is powerful for SEO but overuse can look unnatural to search engines.
What is branded anchor text?
Branded anchors use a company or site name (e.g. "LazySEO"). They are the most natural link type and signal authority for the brand rather than a specific keyword.
Why are generic anchors bad for SEO?
Generic anchors like "click here" or "read more" pass no topical signal to search engines. They waste link equity that could reinforce keyword relevance.
How does the tool classify anchors?
It uses simple rules: image-only links are "image", links with no text are "empty", URLs are "naked URL", common phrases like "click here" are "generic", anchors containing the site or linked brand name are "branded", and all other anchors are "descriptive". If you enter a target keyword, anchors that contain it verbatim are "exact match" and anchors that share some of its words are "partial match". Treat the result as a quick heuristic, not a manual review.
What does naked URL mean?
A naked URL uses the raw URL as anchor text (e.g. "https://example.com/page"). It provides minimal keyword signal but can look natural, especially in citations.
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Key terms explained
Plain-English definitions from the LazySEO SEO glossary.