Reading Your First Link Report: Live URL, Target Page and Anchor Text

Each row of a link report answers three questions: where the link sits, which of your pages it points to, and what words are on it. If you can open the live URL, find your link, tap it and land on the page the report names, that row is real. The link type column tells you what kind of link it is, and everything else in the report is detail around those checks.

We don't hand out sample reports, so here is one invented row, described in words, for an invented business. Once one row makes sense, the rest of the report reads the same way.

The business in this example

Say you own a fence company in Chesterfield that we'll call Ironbark Fence. Your website has a home page, a page for wood privacy fences, a page for aluminum fencing, a page for gates and a contact page. You're on a Neighborhood plan, which includes 10 keywords, 10 guest posts and 10 Web 2.0 properties, plus 3,000 amplification links (the plan counts are on the pricing page). One of your 10 keywords is "privacy fence installation Chesterfield VA".

Your first report arrives. It's a list of rows, and every row has the same fields. Here is one of them.

The row, field by field

Live URL

https://home-and-garden-blog.example/choosing-a-fence-for-a-sloped-backyard

This is the address of the page where the link lives: in this case, an article about fencing a yard that slopes, published on someone else's home and garden site. "Live" means the page was up and the link was on it when the report was put together. Note what the article is about. A fencing article on a home and garden site makes sense for a fence company. A link to a fence company from a page about crypto wallets would be a fair thing to ask about.

Target page

ironbarkfence.example/wood-privacy-fences (an invented address)

This is the page on your site that the link points to. It should be the page that matches the keyword, which here is the wood privacy fence page, not the home page by default. Two things to check: that it's the page you'd want a stranger to land on for that search, and that the page still exists at that address. If you renamed or deleted that page since the link was placed, the link now points at an error page, and that is worth telling your agency right away.

Anchor text

"wood privacy fence installers in Chesterfield"

These are the clickable words in the article. They give readers (and Google) a short description of what's on the other end. This one is descriptive and close to the keyword without repeating it word for word, which is how a writer would naturally mention a local installer.

Link type

Guest post.

Our reports use three types, and it helps to know them before you read further down the list:

• Guest post: an article placed through outreach on another website, with a link to yours. The Ironbark row is one.
• Web 2.0: a page we publish on a high-authority publishing platform, pointing to your site.
• Amplification: a second-tier link that points at one of your guest posts or Web 2.0 pages, not at your site. Its job is to strengthen that page and help it get indexed.

That last type is the one that looks odd at first. On an amplification row, the target is not one of your pages. It's the guest post or Web 2.0 page from higher up the report. So if you see a target like home-and-garden-blog.example/choosing-a-fence-for-a-sloped-backyard, nothing is wrong: that link is supporting the article that links to you.

Spot-check a few rows yourself

You don't need any tools for this. Pick three or four rows each month, mixing link types, and do this for each:

1. Open the live URL in a private or incognito window, so you see what a stranger sees and nothing depends on a login.
2. Use "Find in page" (Ctrl+F on a computer, or the browser menu on a phone) and search for your business name or your domain.
3. Read the sentence around the link. It should make sense in the article, and the article should have something to do with your trade, your area or homeowners in general.
4. Tap the link. You should land on the exact target page in the report, not your home page and not an error.
5. Compare the clickable words with the anchor text in the report.

If you want a rough idea of whether Google has picked the article up yet, type site: followed by the live URL into Google. Treat it as a rough check, not proof either way. A brand-new article may not show for a while.

If a row fails any of these, send that row back and ask what happened. Pages on other people's sites get edited, moved or taken down, and the report should show what's live.

What a healthy anchor mix looks like

There is no published correct ratio, so be wary of anyone who quotes you one as a rule. The useful test is whether the anchors, taken together, look like the different ways real people would mention your business. For Ironbark, a healthy month might include:

• the business name on its own: "Ironbark Fence"
• the bare web address: "ironbarkfence.example"
• plain, generic phrases: "this Chesterfield company", "their gate page"
• descriptive phrases close to a keyword: "wood privacy fence installers in Chesterfield"
• the exact keyword, now and then, not on every row

The warning signs are easy to spot once you look. Every row reading "privacy fence installation Chesterfield VA" word for word is one. Anchors about a service you don't offer is another. So are anchors in a trade that isn't yours, or anchors naming a city you never serve.

Questions worth asking about your report

Write these down as you read, then send them in one email:

• Which keyword is each target page meant to support?
• Why is most of the work pointing at one page, if it is?
• Which rows are new since the last report?
• A row I couldn't find: is it gone, moved or still being indexed?
• Why does this anchor mention a service or place I don't cover?

What the report doesn't tell you

Use the proposal worksheet to compare the promised report with what arrived. If the links point to an overly broad page, review when to split a crowded services page before asking for more placements.

A link report is a list of work done. It isn't a list of results. Results are rankings, calls, form fills and booked jobs, and they take months to move, by an amount that depends on how hard your competition is pushing for the same searches. Keep an eye on those separately: note where you show for your main searches, count your leads, and look at your own Google tools. A simple monthly note of those numbers, kept next to each report, lets you compare the two over a few months.

If you're comparing what different agencies send each month, our home page explains how our SEO plans and reports work. Every plan's monthly report lists the live URL, the target page and the anchor text for each link, the same fields you just read through.