Anchor link

## Why it matters

Anchor links power tables of contents, "back to top" buttons, and jump navigation within pages. Google can surface them as jump-to-section links directly in search results when the target headings are well-structured. This improves SERP appearance and click-through rate.

They carry no cross-page authority signal; they don't leave the page. Counting them with internal or external links inflates your link-total metric if not bucketed separately. Audit them as a distinct category to avoid false positives in link-quality scoring.

## How it works

An anchor link uses a fragment identifier in the href: a hash followed by an element's id that exists on the page. The browser jumps to that element without a full page navigation.

<a href="#section-2">Jump to Section 2</a>
<h2 id="section-2">Section 2</h2>
Copy

The target element's id must exist and be unique on the page. A missing or misspelled id breaks the jump. Modern single-page apps often use JavaScript to handle anchor navigation, but the mechanism remains the same.

## What doesn't matter

Anchor links don't count toward your link authority or crawl budget. They don't pass PageRank-like signals and aren't extracted by search engines as separate navigation targets beyond the link text itself. The number of anchor links on a page isn't a ranking factor.

Google doesn't distinguish between fragment links and same-page JavaScript navigation. Both are same-page jumps with no external link value.

## Code example

A correct table of contents using fragment links:

<nav>
  <ul>
    <li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a></li>
    <li><a href="#methods">Methods</a></li>
    <li><a href="#results">Results</a></li>
  </ul>
</nav>

<h2 id="intro">Introduction</h2>
<p>Content here.</p>

<h2 id="methods">Methods</h2>
<p>More content.</p>
Copy

Anchor links break when the target's id is missing or misspelt:

<!-- Broken: the link targets #results but the heading has no id -->
<a href="#results">Jump to results</a>
<h2>Results</h2>
Copy

## How Scalpel shows it

Scalpel SEO counts anchor links as a separate category in the Links panel, distinguishing them from internal links to other pages. It verifies that fragment links point to elements with matching ids on the current page and flags broken references.

## Anchor link vs anchor text

"Anchor link" is often confused with "anchor text": the clickable words inside any link, whether it jumps within the page or goes elsewhere. This page focuses on the link mechanism (fragment/same-page), not the text content.