How to Audit Internal Links and Anchor Text for a Single Page

The Links tab in QueryBurst shows every inbound and outbound link for any crawled page — with anchor text, link count, surrounding context, and source URL. An Anchors view summarises unique anchors, flags generic text ("click here", "read more") and empty anchors (image links without alt text), and counts how often each is used across the site. Use it to identify orphan pages with no inbound content links, diagnose weak anchor text distribution, and spot contextual linking opportunities.

QueryBurst Page Link Analysis

How to Access Page Link Analysis in QueryBurst

  1. Navigate to Page Reports in QueryBurst
  2. Select a page from the crawled pages list
  3. Click on the Links tab in the page details view

Understanding the Interface

Stats Overview

At the top of the report, you'll see four key metrics:

MetricDescription
Inbound LinksTotal number of links pointing to this page from other pages on your site
Outbound LinksTotal number of links from this page to other pages on your site
Pages Link HereNumber of unique pages that contain at least one link to this page
Pages Linked ToNumber of unique pages this page links to

Tip: A page with many inbound links from unique pages is typically considered more important by search engines than one with few or no internal links.

View Modes

The report offers three viewing modes, toggled via pills below the stats row. The Anchors view is shown by default.

1. Inbound View

Shows all links pointing to the current page. For each link, you'll see:

  • Anchor text — The clickable text used in the link
  • Link count — How many times this exact link appears (if duplicated)
  • Multiple anchors — When the same source page links with different anchor texts, all variations are shown with individual counts
  • Source page — The page title and URL where the link originates

Click any link row to expand and see the context — the surrounding text where the link appears, fetched on demand.

Use the search bar to filter links by URL, page title, or anchor text.

2. Outbound View

Shows all links from the current page to other pages. The information displayed mirrors the inbound view but shows destination pages instead of source pages. The same search filter is available.

3. Anchors View

A dedicated analysis of anchor text usage, split into two columns (Inbound on the left, Outbound on the right).

For both Inbound and Outbound:

  • Unique — Number of distinct anchor text variations
  • Empty — Links with no anchor text (typically image links)
  • Generic — Links using generic phrases like "click here", "read more", "learn more", or "here"
  • Ranked anchor list — All anchor texts ordered by frequency, showing the count for each. The list is capped at 10 initially with a "Show all" toggle.

When empty or generic anchors are detected, contextual tips appear below the two columns with suggestions for improvement.

Interpreting Results

Healthy Internal Linking Signs

  • Multiple inbound links — Shows the page is referenced by other content on the site
  • Descriptive anchor text — Helps search engines understand what the linked page is about
  • Links from topically related pages — Reinforces subject matter relevance
  • Balanced inbound/outbound ratio — Page both receives and distributes link equity

Warning Signs

  • Few or no inbound links — "Orphan page" that may be hard to discover
  • Empty anchor text — Image links without alt text or CSS-hidden links
  • Generic anchor text — "Click here", "Read more" miss keyword opportunities
  • Many outbound, few inbound — Page gives away link equity without receiving any

Tips & Best Practices

  1. Identify related content — Find other pages on your site that discuss similar topics
  2. Add contextual links — Link from those pages' main content to this page
  3. Use descriptive anchor text — Include relevant keywords naturally
  4. Consider hub pages — Create topic hub pages that link to related content

For Anchor Text Optimization

  1. Avoid generic phrases — Instead of "click here", use descriptive text like "our organic cotton collection"
  2. Vary anchor text — Don't use the exact same anchor text for every link to a page
  3. Match user intent — Anchor text should accurately describe what users will find
  4. Fix empty anchors — Add alt text to linked images, or use visible text links

For Image Links (Empty Anchors)

If you have image links showing as "empty anchor text":

  • Add descriptive alt attributes to the images
  • Consider adding a text link alongside or below the image
  • Ensure the alt text describes the destination, not just the image

Technical Details

During the crawl process, QueryBurst:

  1. Parses the HTML of each page
  2. Extracts all internal <a href="..."> links
  3. Captures the anchor text and surrounding context
  4. Builds a site-wide link graph connecting all pages

Data Freshness

Link data is updated with each crawl. To see the most current internal linking structure, run a new crawl from Sites & Crawls and then return to the page's Links tab.

  • Link Analysis — Site-wide internal linking report where you can drill into any page to reach this view
  • Page Overview — Quick health check including internal link counts and orphan detection
  • Page Reports — Site-wide page health metrics, filtering, and semantic search