Internal Links Missing Anchor Text: Find & Fix Them Fast

Your internal links are pointing Google somewhere — but not telling it why. An <a href="/page"> with nothing inside it passes zero topical context. Google follows the link, gets no relevance signal, and moves on. You've burned crawl budget and got nothing back.

Missing anchor text is any internal link where the clickable text is empty, absent, or generic ('click here', 'read more', 'here'). It's one of the most common internal linking mistakes, and most site owners don't know they have it until rankings plateau for no obvious reason.

This guide covers what causes it, how Google handles it, how to find every instance, and how to fix it — prioritized by impact.

Missing anchor text occurs when an internal hyperlink contains no descriptive text between its opening and closing tags, uses an image link without alt text, or uses a non-descriptive phrase that provides no topical context to search engines or users.

There are three types. Empty anchor — <a href="/page"></a> — severe; zero context passed. Image link with no alt — <a href="/page"><img alt=""></a> — severe; alt text is the anchor equivalent. Generic anchor — <a href="/page">Click here</a> — moderate; context exists but is useless.

All three strip topical relevance from your internal linking structure. The fix is different for each. Key takeaway: missing anchor text is not one problem — it's three distinct link states. Empty anchors are the most damaging; generic anchors are the most common. Fix them in that order.

Google's documentation confirms anchor text is a relevance signal. When Googlebot crawls an internal link, it reads the anchor text to understand what the destination page covers. Strong, descriptive anchor text reinforces topical relevance for the linked page — see our full anchor text SEO guide for the seven types and healthy distribution.

When anchor text is absent, Google falls back on surrounding paragraph context — the sentences around the link. That's a secondary signal, not a replacement.

Three direct ranking impacts follow. Pillar pages receive weaker topical reinforcement from cluster pages. Pages competing for specific keywords get diluted co-citation signals. AI search engines — Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT — use anchor context to map entity relationships between pages on your site.

John Mueller (Google Search Advocate) has confirmed anchor text helps Google understand page relevance. Remove that signal and Google guesses — and guessing produces inconsistent rankings. Key takeaway: anchor text is a direct relevance signal, not a formatting preference. Every empty or generic anchor on an internal link is a missed opportunity to reinforce what a destination page should rank for.

Before fixing, categorize your missing anchor text using the 3-Gap Anchor Audit Framework.

Gap 1 — Empty Links. The anchor tag contains no text and no image with alt text. These are the most damaging. Common sources: developer-built button components, CMS-generated related post widgets, theme navigation elements.

Gap 2 — Silent Image Links. An image is the clickable element, but the alt attribute is blank or missing. Google treats these identically to empty text anchors. Common sources: logo links, icon links, thumbnail links in content feeds.

Gap 3 — Generic Label Links. The anchor has visible text, but the text carries no topical meaning: 'click here', 'here', 'read more', 'learn more', 'this page'. Common sources: default theme templates, lazy content production, CTA buttons.

Fixing in this order — Gap 1 first, Gap 3 last — maximizes ranking impact per hour spent. Key takeaway: the 3-Gap Audit prioritizes fixes by SEO impact. Don't fix them randomly. Empty links cause the most ranking damage; fix those first.

Method 1 — Roshlytix (fastest). Roshlytix's Internal Link Finder crawls your entire site and surfaces every internal link — flagging empty anchors, image links without alt text, and generic anchor text in one audit. You get a prioritized list by page, ready to act on. No manual crawl, no spreadsheet work.

Method 2 — Screaming Frog (free up to 500 URLs). Run a full site crawl, open the Internal tab, select the Anchor column, filter for blank values, export the list, then cross-reference with the Source column to identify which pages contain the broken links. Effective but time-consuming. Gap 2 and Gap 3 require separate manual filtering steps — full walkthrough in our Screaming Frog internal link audit comparison.

Method 3 — Google Search Console (symptom detection only). GSC doesn't expose anchor text data. But pages with high impressions and near-zero clicks often signal weak internal link equity. Use GSC to identify underperforming pages, then audit their inbound internal links for anchor quality.

Key takeaway: Roshlytix surfaces all three anchor gap types in one crawl. Screaming Frog requires manual filtering per gap type. GSC identifies ranking symptoms but not the specific links causing them.

Step 1 — Export your full internal link list. Use Roshlytix or Screaming Frog. You need source URL, destination URL, and current anchor text (or blank). Our internal link audit walkthrough covers the full export workflow.

Step 2 — Fix Gap 1: empty anchors. Write anchor text that names the destination page's topic. Include the page's target keyword where it reads naturally. Before: <a href="/orphan-page-finder"></a>. After: <a href="/orphan-page-finder">find orphan pages on your site</a>.

Step 3 — Fix Gap 2: image links. Set alt text that describes where the link goes, not just what the image shows. Before: <a href="/internal-link-audit"><img alt=""></a>. After: <a href="/internal-link-audit"><img alt="internal link audit tool"></a>.

Step 4 — Fix Gap 3: generic labels. Replace every 'click here', 'read more', and 'here' with the destination topic. Before: <a href="/content-intent">Read more</a>. After: <a href="/content-intent">how content intent affects rankings</a>.

Step 5 — Prioritize by destination page importance. Fix links pointing to pillar pages and money pages first. Supporting content after. If you're not sure which pages are your pillars, our topical authority guide explains the hierarchy.

Step 6 — Prevent recurrence. Add anchor text requirements to your content production checklist. Audit CMS widgets monthly — related post blocks and navigation elements regenerate automatically and silently.

Key takeaway: fix order matters as much as the fix itself. Prioritize destination pages that hold your most important rankings. Empty anchors pointing to pillar pages cannot wait.

Missing anchor text is a silent rankings problem. It doesn't trigger GSC errors, doesn't break crawling, and doesn't appear in visual reviews — which is exactly why it compounds unnoticed across hundreds of pages.

The fix is straightforward once you have a complete list. Use the 3-Gap Anchor Audit Framework: empty links first, silent image links second, generic labels third. Prioritize by destination page importance.

Every descriptive anchor you add reinforces topical relevance for the linked page. Fix enough of them and you'll see ranking movement on pages that haven't moved in months — not because you changed the content, but because the site's internal structure finally supports it properly.

Find every missing anchor on your site in one crawl with the free Roshlytix Internal Link Finder. Pair it with the orphan page finder to catch pages that have no inbound internal links at all.