Backlinks: anchor text ranking
The Anchor Text page — ranking of clickable texts used to link to the site, with backlink count, distinct domains and dofollow per anchor; status filters (All/Active/Lost) and text search.
The Anchor Text page (fourth sidebar item in the Backlinks group) groups backlinks by anchor text (“anchor text” = the clickable word or phrase of the link). It’s the right view to diagnose the anchor strategy of your link profile: too many identical anchors are a risk signal for Google.
Natural distribution. A healthy backlink profile mixes: brand anchors (“miraqo”, “example.com”), generic anchors (“click here”, “discover more”), URL anchors (“https://example.com”), exact keyword anchors (“dental practice management software”) in varying proportions. If 60% of anchors are the same exact transactional keyword, Google reads this as manipulative link building.
The stat card
At the top, one card:
- Distinct anchors — number of unique anchor texts found in the backlink profile
Filters and search
Chips for All / Active only / Lost only + text search for anchor text (icontains, useful for searching “click here”, or a specific brand).
The table
One row per unique anchor. Columns (sortable):
| Column | What it is |
|---|---|
| Anchor Text | Clickable link text, in italics (sortable, truncated at 120 chars) |
| Backlinks | How many backlinks use this anchor in total (sortable) |
| Distinct domains | How many different domains it appears on (sortable) |
| Dofollow | How many of the backlinks with this anchor are dofollow |
What to look for
- Brand anchor at the top (e.g. “miraqo”, “mysite.com”, “my site”) → positive signal: most links talk about the brand
- Exact keyword anchor with very high backlink_count and low domain variety → typical spam link or link farm pattern: look for “best X software” or similar with 50+ backlinks but from few domains → check those domains in Backlinks (monitoring) and consider disavow
- Empty or ”—” anchors → links without text (e.g. image link without alt or bare links). Not inherently problematic but a very high proportion indicates a poorly structured profile
- Anchor with dofollow_count = 0 on an anchor with many backlinks → all nofollow: they don’t pass authority but still provide social “mention” value
Update frequency
Automatic every 4 weeks (28 days), like all pages in the Backlinks section.
Empty state
“No anchors found” — wait for the first snapshot (it starts on its own a few minutes after the project is added).
See also:
- Backlinks overview →
- Backlinks (monitoring) → — anchor filter goes through here
- Referring Domains →
Last updated: 5 September 2026