Anchor Report

A full inventory of every anchor text on your site — who uses it, where it points, and which ones are problems.

What this is

Every internal link has anchor text (the clickable words). The Anchor Report shows you all of them at once.

Useful for:

• Spotting overused anchors (Google penalizes too-many exact-match anchors pointing to the same place)
• Finding cases where the same anchor points to MULTIPLE different URLs (confusing for both Google and readers)
• Auditing your anchor diversity
• Removing generic anchors ("click here", "read more") that hurt SEO

Open the report

Go to Linkilo → Anchor Report in the WordPress sidebar.

What you'll see

• Page title: 🪢 Anchor Report
• Two buttons at the top: – 🔄 Refresh analysis — re-runs local analysis from your link table. Does NOT re-scan posts. – ⬇ Export CSV — download the full anchor inventory
• Stat cards showing counts of each flag: – Multi-URL — anchors pointing to multiple different target URLs – Generic — anchors like "click here" / "read more" – Over-optimized — same exact-match anchor used too many times – Brand — your brand-name anchors (informational only) – Empty — anchors with no text (image links, etc.)
• A 🔥 Top 3 Anchor Problems highlight box at the top — biggest issues, fix these first
• A full sortable table

Flag meanings

Multi-URL

Same anchor points to more than one target URL.

Example: "espresso machine" anchor points to your Best Espresso Machines post in some places and How to Choose an Espresso Machine in others.

Usually bad. Pick one canonical target. Update or remove the other instances.

Generic

Anchor is "click here", "read more", "this article", "learn more", etc.

These tell Google nothing about the destination. Replace with descriptive anchors like "best espresso machine reviews" or "how to clean a humidor."

Over-optimized

Same exact-match anchor is used too many times.

Looks unnatural to Google. Mitigate by varying:

• Use synonyms ("top humidors" vs "best humidors" vs "premium humidors")
• Use partial matches ("humidor reviews" vs "best humidor reviews vs "humidor buying guide")
• Drop some of them

You don't need to fix every occurrence. Getting from 50 uses to 30 is usually enough to clear the flag.

Brand

Anchor is your brand name. Linkilo flags these but they don't hurt your score — it's informational.

Empty

Anchor has no text (image links, links with empty <a> tags). Often unintentional.

Fix an over-optimized anchor

1. Click the count in the row. Linkilo shows every post that uses the anchor.
2. Open a few of those posts and edit them.
3. Replace some occurrences with synonyms or partial-match alternatives.
4. Save. Re-run the Anchor Report to confirm the over-optimization flag is gone.

Fix a multi-URL anchor

Click the row to see the competing targets. Decide which is canonical (usually the longer, more comprehensive post). Update the other instances to:

• Use a DIFFERENT anchor text pointing to the canonical
• Or remove the link entirely

Common Questions

How do I know which target should be canonical?

Look at:

• Word count (longer is usually canonical)
• Search rankings in GSC (which one ranks better for the keyword)
• Pillar score in Linkilo (which one looks like a hub article)

If you have Keyword Cannibalization data, Linkilo's already done this analysis — check there for the recommended primary.

A "click here" appears 100 times on my site — is that really bad?

Generic anchors don't pass topical signals to Google about the destination. They're not actively harmful, but they're a wasted opportunity. Every "click here" could be "best espresso machine guide" — same number of links, way more SEO value.

You don't need to fix all 100 at once. Replace 10–20 at a time during regular content updates.

What's the "brand" flag for?

Linkilo identifies your brand name (from the post title most-used pattern) and flags anchors that match. Just informational — brand anchors are fine for SEO.

Can I bulk-replace anchors?

Not directly from the Anchor Report. Use the URL Records page for bulk operations.

Refresh analysis vs. re-scan posts

• Refresh analysis — uses your current link table, recomputes stats fast (seconds).
• Re-scan posts — re-reads every post and rebuilds the link table from scratch. Slower (minutes). Use only if the link table is out of date.

The Anchor Report's button is "Refresh analysis." For a full re-scan, go to URL Records and click Re-sync.