Skip to content
Surfilby Adam Hafez
Free tool

Anchor text ratio and diversity calculator

Anchor text ratio calculator: sort backlink anchors into exact, partial, branded, generic, naked URL and other, with shares. Free, runs in your browser.

Runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter is uploaded, logged or stored.

Generic anchors are matched against a small hardcoded list of common phrases (click here, read more, this page, learn more,website, here, link) - a heuristic starting point, not an authoritative taxonomy.

Anchor textCategory

Google's own guidance on link spam treats links built with optimized, keyword-stuffed anchor text as a manipulation pattern, not a natural linking signal. Google has never published an exact "safe" exact-match percentage, so this is a distribution to review, not a pass or fail verdict.

Key takeaways

  • Google's spam policies list links with optimized anchor text in articles, guest posts or press releases as link spam.
  • Google has never published a safe exact-match percentage, so this tool reports a distribution rather than issuing a verdict.
  • Partial match means the anchor contains the keyword or at least half of its individual words.
  • Branded anchors are only counted when you supply a brand name, because guessing a brand from the keyword would be unreliable.
  • The generic category matches seven fixed phrases exactly, so a phrase like "their website" lands in other.

What it takes

  • A target keyword or phrase
  • An optional brand or site name
  • A list of inbound anchor texts, one per line

More tools

All of them free, all of them browser-only.

Browse the tools

How to use it

  1. 1Paste your anchor textsList every inbound anchor pointing at the one page you are checking, one per line. Mixing anchors from several pages will distort the percentages.
  2. 2Enter the target keywordUse the exact phrase you want the page to rank for. Exact and partial match are both measured against this value.
  3. 3Add a brand name, if usefulSupply your brand or site name to separate branded anchors from generic ones. Leave it blank and the branded category is skipped rather than guessed.
  4. 4Read the category splitCheck the percentage in each category, then look at the note below the table. A profile concentrated on one exact phrase is the pattern worth reviewing, not a specific number.

Anchor text is the visible, clickable words of a link. Google’s spam policies list “links with optimized anchor text in articles, guest posts, or press releases distributed on other sites” as an example of link spam. That is the whole documented basis for caring about your anchor mix: not a ratio to hit, but a pattern that looks placed rather than earned.

What the calculator checks

Each anchor is lowercased, trimmed and stripped of punctuation, then tested in this order. The first rule that matches wins.

  1. Naked URL. Starts with a scheme such as https://, or looks like a bare domain with an optional path, such as example.com/page.
  2. Generic. Exactly one of seven phrases: click here, read more, this page, learn more, website, here, link.
  3. Exact match. Equals your target keyword after normalization, so “Project Management Software!” matches “project management software”. A hyphen is deleted rather than turned into a space, so “project-management software” is not exact; it lands in partial match.
  4. Branded. Contains the brand name you supplied. Skipped entirely when the field is blank.
  5. Partial match. Contains the full keyword, or at least half of its individual words.
  6. Other. Everything left over.

The order explains most surprises. A domain is always a naked URL even if it is your brand, and an anchor containing both brand and keyword is branded, not partial.

How to read the results

The stats grid shows the total and each category as a percentage with its count. The table below lists every anchor with its category, and a note under it reads the overall shape:

  • If exact match is half the list or more, it says the profile is concentrated on one exact phrase and worth reviewing.
  • If only one or two categories are used at all, it says the list draws on a narrow mix.
  • Otherwise it says the list spreads across several categories.

None of these is a penalty prediction. Google publishes no threshold, so the note describes shape, not risk. The useful comparison is your own profile before and after a link-building campaign.

Worked example

The tool loads with a sample: keyword “project management software”, brand “Taskflow” and 14 anchors. It classifies them like this:

CategoryCountShareAnchors
Exact match17%project management software
Partial match214%best project management software; project management software for teams
Branded214%Taskflow; Taskflow project management
Generic321%click here; learn more; read more
Naked URL214%https://taskflow.example.com; Taskflow.com
Other429%this online task tracker; task management tool; their website; free trial

Six categories are in use and exact match is well under half, so the note reads that the list spreads across several anchor categories. Two results are worth noticing. “Task management tool” shares only one of the keyword’s three words, below the half needed for partial match. “Their website” is not an exact generic phrase, so it falls to other.

Common mistakes it catches

  • One phrase repeated across placed links. A list where most rows are identical keyword anchors is the pattern Google’s policy describes, and it shows as exact match at 50% or more.
  • Keyword variants that are really the same anchor. Capitals, extra spaces and trailing punctuation are normalized away, so “Project Management Software!” and “project management software” both count as exact.
  • A mix that looks diverse but is not. A list split only between exact and partial match triggers the narrow-mix note, even when no single phrase dominates.
  • Mixing pages. Anchors to your homepage are mostly branded; anchors to a product page are not. Pasting both together hides the real split for either.

The generic list is deliberately small, a heuristic rather than a taxonomy. If many of your anchors land in other, read that row by eye.

Sources

  1. 1.Spam policies for Google Search - Google Search CentralPrimary

Common questions

What is a safe exact-match anchor text percentage?

There is no published one. Google's spam policies name optimized anchor text in paid or distributed content as link spam, but give no threshold. Any fixed percentage you read elsewhere is an opinion, not a Google rule, which is why this tool shows the split instead of a pass or fail.

Where do I get my list of anchor texts?

From any backlink export that includes an anchor text column. Filter it to links pointing at one page before pasting, because the percentages only mean something per target URL.

Why does an anchor with my brand and keyword count as branded?

The checks run in a fixed order - naked URL, generic, exact, branded, then partial. An anchor such as "Taskflow project management" contains the brand, so it is counted as branded before the partial match check is reached.

Does it treat a domain name as branded or as a naked URL?

As a naked URL. Anything that starts with a scheme, or looks like a bare domain such as taskflow.com, is classified as a naked URL before the brand check runs.

Is my anchor list sent anywhere?

No. The classification runs in your browser as you type, and nothing is stored or uploaded.