Ahrefs Anchor Text Analysis

Fetches the anchor text distribution for a domain's backlink profile from Ahrefs, sorted by referring domains count, and assesses the health of the anchor profile.

References

@skills/seo/references/mcp-degradation.md @skills/seo/references/ahrefs-api-reference.md

Inputs

• domain: The bare domain to analyze (e.g., example.com). Strip https://, http://, and trailing slashes before passing to Ahrefs tools.

MCP Check

Before proceeding, verify Ahrefs MCP is available:

1. Use ToolSearch with query +ahrefs
2. If tools are returned → Ahrefs MCP is available, proceed to Execution
3. If no tools returned → display the Ahrefs MCP error template from references/mcp-degradation.md and stop

Execution

Step 1 — Call Anchors

Call mcp__claude_ai_ahrefs__site-explorer-anchors with:

• target: the bare domain (e.g., example.com)

Returns per anchor: anchor (text), referring_domains count, backlinks count

Step 2 — Calculate Percentages

• Sum all referring_domains across all anchors to get the total
• Calculate each anchor's % of Total = (referring_domains / total) * 100
• Sort by referring_domains descending

Step 3 — Health Assessment

Classify the anchor text distribution using these thresholds:

• Branded anchors (domain name, brand name, company name):

  • 40% of referring domains = healthy

  • <10% = may indicate over-reliance on keyword anchors
• Exact-match keyword anchors (exact target keyword with no brand):

  • 10% = over-optimized risk (potential Google penalty signal)

  • 3–10% = acceptable range
• Generic anchors ("click here", "here", "this link", "read more", naked URLs):

  • 30% = may indicate low-quality link profile

  • 10–30% = normal range
• Diverse distribution (no single non-branded anchor >5%) = natural profile signal

Output Format

## Ahrefs Anchor Text Analysis: example.com

### Anchor Text Distribution

| Anchor Text | Referring Domains | Backlinks | % of Total |
|-------------|------------------|-----------|------------|
| example.com | 1,420 | 3,100 | 44.2% |
| brand name | 580 | 890 | 18.1% |
| seo tools | 210 | 340 | 6.5% |
| click here | 180 | 210 | 5.6% |
| best seo software | 95 | 112 | 3.0% |

**Total referring domains across all anchors:** 3,210

### Profile Health Assessment

| Signal | Value | Status |
|--------|-------|--------|
| Branded anchors (example.com + brand name) | 62.3% | HEALTHY (>40%) |
| Exact-match keyword anchors (seo tools, best seo software) | 9.5% | ACCEPTABLE (<10%) |
| Generic anchors (click here, etc.) | 5.6% | HEALTHY (<30%) |
| Anchor diversity | 45+ unique anchors | NATURAL |

**Overall:** Healthy anchor profile. Branded anchors dominate at 62.3%, with
acceptable exact-match at 9.5%. No over-optimization signals detected.

### Recommendations
- Maintain branded anchor dominance — continue building brand mentions
- Monitor exact-match anchors — approaching 10% threshold; avoid actively
  building more exact-match links

Error — Ahrefs MCP Not Available

If MCP check fails, display the Ahrefs error template from references/mcp-degradation.md:

## Ahrefs MCP Not Available

The `/seo ahrefs anchor-analysis` command requires the Ahrefs MCP, which is not
currently connected.

**What you can do:**
- Use `/seo audit <url>` for a full static SEO analysis without live Ahrefs data
- Use `/seo technical <url>` for technical SEO issues without backlink/keyword data

**To connect Ahrefs MCP:**
- Ensure the Ahrefs MCP is registered at user scope in ~/.claude/mcp.json
- Verify with: cat ~/.claude/mcp.json | grep -i ahrefs
- Ahrefs MCP must be registered at user scope (not project scope) to work in subagents