Links Without Anchor Text

What This Means

An <a> element with an href attribute contains no visible text and no image with an alt attribute. The link exists in the HTML but has no content that users or crawlers can read to understand its purpose.

Why It Matters for SEO

Empty anchor links are effectively invisible to users — there is no visible text to click. They also provide zero topical context to crawlers: the link is followed, but no signal about the destination's topic is passed. For screen reader users, an empty link is announced as just "link" with no description — a WCAG failure.

Empty links most often result from deleted content that was inside a link tag (leaving an empty <a></a> shell), or image links where the image failed to load and no alt text was provided.

What the Platform Checks

The platform inspects the content of each <a href> element, checking for visible text nodes or <img> elements with non-empty alt text. Fires when neither is found.

How to Fix It

• Add descriptive text inside the link that describes the destination.
• For image links: ensure the image has a descriptive alt attribute (alt="View product details").
• For links whose inner content was removed: either delete the link entirely or add appropriate anchor text.
• Review your CMS for components that may generate empty link shells when their content is missing.