Analyze Your Anchor Text Distribution in One Report
The Anchors report lists every unique anchor text used in links pointing to the analyzed site. For each anchor it shows how many referring domains and backlink pages use it — giving you a complete picture of your anchor distribution and any over-optimization risks.
What you can achieve:
Assess anchor diversity: See the full breakdown of branded, generic, naked URL, and keyword-rich anchors — a natural mix reduces over-optimization risk.
Identify over-optimized anchors: Spot exact-match keyword anchors that appear in an unusually high share of your backlinks — a common red flag during manual reviews.
Benchmark competitors: Run the report on any competing domain to analyze their anchor strategy and compare it to yours.
Getting Started
Navigate to Backlink Analysis → Anchors in the left sidebar.
Enter a domain (e.g.,
example.com) into the search bar and click Search.Sort by Referring Domains descending to see which anchor texts appear most widely across unique donors.
Use the word count filter in the toolbar to segment anchors by length — for example, isolate single-word anchors that may be exact-match keyword targets.
Filter by anchor text containing your primary keyword to measure its share of the total backlink count.
Click Export to download in CSV, XLS, or XLSX.
Key Metrics Explained
Anchor: The visible text of the link (the content between the HTML anchor tags). Empty anchors indicate image links with no alt text.
Referring domains: The number of unique domains that use this anchor text in links pointing to your site.
Backlinks: The total number of individual pages — across all domains — that use this anchor text.
Nofollow backlinks: The count of links with this anchor that carry the rel="nofollow" attribute. These links are discounted by search engines and do not pass authority.
Pro Tip: Flag Over-Optimized Anchors in Under a Minute
If a single keyword phrase dominates your anchor profile, that concentration may attract a manual review — find it fast before it becomes a problem.
Filter by anchor text containing your primary target keyword.
Note the Backlinks count for that anchor. Compare it to the total backlink count from the Backlink Dashboard.
If a single keyword phrase accounts for more than 20–30% of total backlinks, the concentration is high.
Check the Nofollow backlinks column — if most of those links are already nofollow, the risk is significantly reduced.
⚠️ Important: The word count filter counts words by the number of spaces in the anchor text. Image links with no alt text appear as empty anchors in the report. The Recrawling URL Tool lets you request a manual re-check of up to 500 URLs per day. Credits are not charged. Unused daily credits do not carry over. |
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is a healthy anchor text distribution?
A: There is no universal benchmark, but a natural profile typically includes branded anchors (company name, domain URL), generic phrases ("click here", "read more"), naked URLs, and a smaller share of keyword-rich anchors. A profile dominated by exact-match keywords is a common red flag during manual reviews.
Q: How does the word count filter work?
A: The filter counts words by the number of spaces in the anchor text. Use it to isolate single-word anchors, long-tail phrases, or empty anchors (image links with no visible text).
Q: How do I export the anchor list?
A: Click Export to download in CSV, XLS, or XLSX. Connect your Google account in Settings to export directly to Google Sheets or BigQuery.
Next Steps
Backlinks — Inspect individual links with full anchor, type, and attribute data.
Referring Domains — See which domains are behind your most common anchor texts.
Top Pages — Find which pages attract the most links.