SiteAud!tLint Support

Opportunity Internal Linking

Non-descriptive anchor text

Severity
Opportunity
Impact
Low
Effort to fix
Low
Issue code
anchor_generic

Why it matters

Anchors like "click here" or "read more" tell users and search engines nothing about the target page.

How to fix it

Rewrite the anchors to describe the page being linked to.

What this means

The page has internal links whose visible text says nothing about where they lead, such as "click here", "read more", "learn more", "here" or "this page". The evidence shows how many and one example, for example 3 link(s), e.g. "read more" to /pricing.

Only internal links are checked, and only exact generic phrases are flagged: "read more about pricing" is fine.

Why it matters

  • Search engines use anchor text to understand what the linked page is about. "Read more" tells them nothing; "pricing for agencies" does.
  • Accessibility. Screen reader users often browse a list of the links on a page. A list of ten "read more" links is useless out of context, and WCAG asks that a link's purpose be clear from its text.
  • Scanning. Visitors skim links. Descriptive text tells them where they are going before they click.

Common causes

  • "Read more" buttons on blog cards, product cards and teasers, repeated for every item.
  • Habitual writing: "to see our prices, click here".
  • Theme defaults that label every button the same way.

How to fix it

  1. In content, link the words that describe the target: write see our <a href="/pricing">agency pricing</a> instead of <a href="/pricing">click here</a> for pricing.
  2. In card templates, either make the title the link, or change the button text to include the item, such as "Read the case study".
  3. If a design needs short button text, add visually hidden text for screen readers, but keep the title link descriptive for search engines.
  4. Keep anchors natural. Do not repeat the same exact keyword on every link to a page.

Verify the fix

Recrawl. Template changes clear the issue across every page that uses the card or button. See also Internal links without anchor text.

How it affects your score

Finding this issue on any page costs the Internal Linking score 0.5 points, plus up to 4 more depending on the share of crawled pages affected. A smaller improvement with a modest effect on its own.

Find the affected URLs

Open Crawl > Issues and pick Non-descriptive anchor text. Each affected URL is listed with its evidence, and Copy URLs or Export URLs hands the list to a developer. The issue also appears in the Action Plan, ranked by impact (low) and effort (low), and in the issues CSV under the code anchor_generic. After fixing, run a new audit and use Compare to confirm the URLs moved to fixed.

Guides that cover this issue