An internal link with no anchor text passes no descriptive signal to Google or your visitors, so give every internal link readable text, or an alt attribute on a linked image, or an aria-label when the link is icon only.
What "Has Internal Link with No Anchor Text" means
This issue flags an internal link on your site whose clickable element contains no readable text. The link target works, but the <a> element is effectively silent: there is no visible word, no descriptive label, and no alternative text inside it. Anchor text is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink that gives users and search engines context about the page being linked to. When that text is missing, the link still passes link equity, but it carries no descriptive context with it.
Crawlers such as Screaming Frog and Sitebulb surface this as "Internal Outlinks With No Anchor Text." In Screaming Frog you can confirm it in the Outlinks tab where the Anchor Text column is blank, and for a linked image, where the Alt Text column is also blank.
Why anchor text matters for internal links
Google's own link guidance states that good anchor text is descriptive, reasonably concise, and relevant to both the page it sits on and the page it points to. Google explicitly advises paying attention to the anchor text used for internal links, because it helps both people and Google make sense of your site and discover other pages. An empty anchor removes that help. The link becomes a route with no signpost.
There is an accessibility cost too. Screen readers announce links by their accessible name. A link with no text, no image alt, and no label is announced as an unlabeled link, which leaves assistive-technology users with no idea where it goes. Fixing anchor text therefore improves search understanding and usability at the same time.
Common causes
Icon-only links
A link wrapped around an SVG, a font icon, or a sprite (a search magnifier, a cart, a social glyph) with no visible words and no label is the single most frequent trigger.
Image links with no alt text
When an <a> wraps an <img>, Google uses the image's alt attribute as the anchor text. If the alt attribute is empty or missing, the link has no anchor text at all.
Empty spans and wrappers
Card layouts and theme components often wrap a whole block in an <a> that contains only empty <span> or <div> elements, or whitespace. The clickable area exists, but there is nothing inside it for a crawler to read.
How to diagnose
Run a crawl with Screaming Frog and open the Links tab, then apply the "Internal Outlinks With No Anchor Text" filter. Export the full list with Bulk Export > Links > Internal Outlinks With No Anchor Text. Sitebulb and Ahrefs Site Audit report the same pattern under their internal-link and accessibility checks. For a quick spot check, open the page source and look for <a> tags whose inner content is empty, an icon, or an image with no alt.
How to fix
Pick the method that matches the link type. The goal is one clear, descriptive accessible name per link.
For a normal text link, place descriptive words inside the <a> element. For an image link, add a descriptive alt attribute to the image. For an icon-only link where you do not want visible text, hide the icon from assistive tech with aria-hidden and add an aria-label to the <a>. Google notes it can fall back to the title attribute when an anchor is empty, but treats this only as a fallback, so do not rely on title alone.
<!-- BAD: empty icon link, no readable name -->
<a href="/pricing/"><i class="icon-arrow"></i></a>
<!-- BAD: image link with no alt -->
<a href="/services/"><img src="services.png" alt=""></a>
<!-- BAD: card wrapper with empty span -->
<a href="/blog/seo-guide/"><span></span></a>
<!-- GOOD: visible descriptive text -->
<a href="/pricing/">View our pricing plans</a>
<!-- GOOD: image link with descriptive alt -->
<a href="/services/"><img src="services.png" alt="Our SEO services"></a>
<!-- GOOD: icon-only link with aria-label -->
<a href="/pricing/" aria-label="View our pricing plans">
<i class="icon-arrow" aria-hidden="true"></i>
</a>Common mistakes
Avoid stuffing the same keyword into every label; Google wants anchors that are relevant and natural, not repetitive. Do not use vague filler like "click here" or "read more" as your fix, since generic anchors give little description of the destination. Do not leave the alt attribute empty on a linked image and assume the URL alone is enough. And do not add an aria-label that contradicts visible text, because mismatched labels confuse speech-recognition users. One clear, accurate, descriptive name per link is the standard to hit.
FAQ
A: It will not penalize you, but it wastes an opportunity. The link still passes equity, yet without anchor text it gives Google no descriptive context about the target page, so you lose a relevance signal you could have had.
A: Visible text is best because it serves users and search engines together. For genuine icon-only links where visible text would not fit the design, aria-label is the correct accessible solution and gives the link a readable name.
A: Add a descriptive alt attribute to the image. Google uses the image alt text as the anchor text for image links, so a clear alt resolves the issue.
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Claude Vincent is a technical SEO consultant focused on crawlability, rendering, and AI-search visibility. He writes the field guides and case studies at SEO ProCheck, with a bias toward the durable, unglamorous work that decides whether search engines and AI answer engines can actually read and cite a site.
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