An anchor text distribution can make or break a link-building campaign. Paste your backlink list and this tool instantly classifies every anchor into six categories — branded, exact-match keyword, partial-match keyword, naked URL, generic, and image — then scores your profile against the healthy ranges used by SEO professionals worldwide.
How anchor text categorisation works
Each anchor is tested against a decision tree:
- Image / empty — blank anchors or
[image]placeholders, typically from linked images with no alt text. - Naked URL — any anchor that starts with
http://,https://, orwww.is a raw URL rather than descriptive text. - Generic / navigational — a built-in list of 35 common phrases such as “click here”, “read more”, “learn more”, and “visit site”. These carry no keyword signal.
- Branded — any anchor that contains one of your branded terms (configured in the keyword panel). Include your company name, product name, and domain variants.
- Exact-match keyword — the anchor matches one of your target keywords exactly (case- insensitive). This is the highest-risk category; Google Penguin specifically targets profiles where exact-match anchors form a suspiciously large proportion.
- Partial-match keyword — the anchor contains a keyword but is not an exact match (e.g. “best blue widgets reviewed” for the keyword “blue widgets”).
- Other — everything else that did not match the above rules.
Worked example
Suppose you run an export from Ahrefs for a client in the home-improvement space. The export
shows 500 backlinks. You enter brand terms acme, acmehome and exact keyword emergency plumber london. After pasting the export:
| Category | Count | Pct | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Branded | 210 | 42% | Healthy |
| Generic | 110 | 22% | Healthy |
| Naked URL | 65 | 13% | Healthy |
| Partial-match | 60 | 12% | Healthy |
| Exact-match | 40 | 8% | Over-limit |
| Other | 15 | 3% | — |
The exact-match percentage of 8% exceeds the 5% threshold, triggering a Medium penalty-risk score. The recommendation is to build more branded and generic anchors — and, if possible, to disavow or reach out to sites using the exact keyword anchor in a clearly unnatural way.
Formula and risk scoring
The penalty-risk score is a weighted index on a 0-100 scale:
- Each percentage point of exact-match above 5% adds 4 points (capped at 50).
- Each percentage point of branded below 15% adds 1.5 points (capped at 30).
- If branded is below 5% a flat 20-point floor is applied.
Scores up to 20 are Low risk, 21-50 are Medium, and above 50 are High. This is a heuristic, not a Google signal — treat it as a direction indicator, not a certainty.
Diversity ratio
The diversity ratio is (unique anchors / total links) × 100. A ratio close to 100% means almost every link uses a different anchor, which looks natural. A low ratio (many links sharing the same anchor) amplifies any over-optimisation signal.