Anchor text analyser

What Google and the research say

Google asks for link text that is descriptive, reasonably concise and relevant to both pages, and names “click here” and “read more” as examples to avoid. It also warns against stuffing link text with keywords.¹ Its starter guide puts it simply: the words should tell people and Google what the linked page is about before they click.²

Repetition is a different matter. Google’s John Mueller has said that linking to the same page with the same words several times is normal and nothing to worry about.³ So this tool never calls repetition a penalty. What the data does suggest is that variety helps: in Zyppy’s study of 23 million internal links on 1,800 sites, pages whose incoming links used more varied wording got more clicks from search — a correlation, not proof.⁴

How the analyser decides

Generic

The whole link is a phrase that says nothing about its destination (“here”, “this post”, “website”), or it opens with one (“read more about…”, “click here to…”). A descriptive phrase that merely starts with a common word — “website builder”, “more sales” — is not generic.

Same words every time

A page with at least four links pointing to it from your writing, where 60% or more of them use one phrase. Both numbers are our own threshold — no source gives one — chosen so that a page with three links is never flagged, and so the flag means most of the wording, not some of it.

Same words, different pages

One phrase that links to two or more different pages. A reader who meets “sourdough starter” twice expects it to lead to the same place, and two pages claiming one phrase is a hint they may compete for the same search.

Limits

Up to 500 pages. Image links use their alt text as their words, as Google does; an image with no alt text has no words to judge and is skipped. Links from other websites are not part of this — this is about the links you control.

How to read your results

• What your link text says — the mix across the whole site. Most of it describing the page is what you want.
• Generic — each phrase with how often it is used and where. Replace it with words from the same sentence.
• Same words every time — not an error. When you next add links to these pages, describe them a different way.
• Same words, different pages — the one to act on: pick the page that phrase should mean and point every use at it.

What to do next

Our guide to choosing anchor text for internal links has examples of good and weak wording, and the one on using exact-match keywords in links covers when using a page’s keyword is fine.

A phrase pointing at two pages is often a sign those pages compete — the keyword cannibalization checker confirms it with your search data. To see every link into a single page with its words, use the page link inspector. When Silotree suggests a link it always wraps words already in your sentence, varies the wording into each page and never uses one phrase for two destinations.

How this compares with other free tools

As each tool’s own page described it when we checked on 11 October 2026. Tools change — if a line here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.

Sources

Each one is labelled with how much weight it can bear. Where the evidence is thin, the page says so.

1. Google documentation Google Search Central — Link best practices for Google (updated Dec 2025). Every page you care about should be linked from at least one other page; there is no ideal number of links; anchor text should be descriptive, concise and not stuffed with keywords.
2. Google documentation Google Search Central — SEO Starter Guide (updated Dec 2025). Google finds most new pages through links; link text should tell people and Google what the linked page is about.
3. Google, said publicly Search Engine Journal — Google on diluting SEO impact through anchor text overuse (Apr 2025). John Mueller: repeating a link with the same words is normal; menus and footers are treated apart from the main content, and links in the writing say more about the page they point to.
4. Study Zyppy (Cyrus Shepard) — 23 million internal links: SEO case study. Across 1,800 sites, pages with more internal links pointing to them got more Search Console clicks up to roughly 40–50 links; varied link text went with more clicks. Correlation, not proof.