Link Editor: fix anchor text where your links actually live
The Link Editor tab lists every tracked anchor with its Source Post, Target URL, Type, and Status, then lets you double-click visible anchor text to rewrite it inline—WordPress saves the change back into post content. Bookmark admin.php?page=seo-link-genius_tools&tab=link-editor next to Link Reports so operators can pair surgical anchor fixes with bulk scan context.
Before you start
The Link Editor screen is data-driven: rows come from the plugin link index that fills after crawls. If you open the tab on a fresh install you will see the empty state copy No Links Found with the reminder to Run a site scan to populate link data.
Editors cleaning verbose anchors, SEOs aligning copy with anchor strategy, and agencies batch-triaging scans use this tab alongside Auto-Link rules (automation) and the Link Graph (structure).
Link Editor screen
WordPress renders a header titled Link Editor with the subtitle Double-click any anchor text to edit it inline — changes save directly to posts. Under that, a highlight bar repeats the Pro Tip: guidance: Double-click any anchor text to edit it. Press Enter to save, Escape to cancel. Changes are applied directly to your post content.
Link Editor
Double-click any anchor text to edit it inline — changes save directly to posts
The four KPI tiles mirror the plugin strings Total Links, Internal Links, External Links, and Broken Links, giving you instant alignment with scan health before you touch a row.
The All Links card shows a counter such as 1,248 links (number + the word links). Filters include Type with options All Links, Internal, and External; a Search field with placeholder Search anchors, URLs, posts…; a primary Filter action; and Clear when something is active.
All Links
Header row order in wp-admin: Source Post › Anchor Text › Target URL › Type › Status.
| Source Post | Anchor Text | Target URL | Type | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring pricing guide POST |
click here | example.com/services/seo | Internal | Dofollow |
| Affiliate disclosure PAGE |
partner offer | partner.example/… | External | Nofollow |
| Legacy blogroll POST |
old toolkit | missing.example/404 | Internal | Broken |
Type badges read Internal or External. Status surfaces Broken, Nofollow, Sponsored, or Dofollow—the same vocabulary you will see above the fold in production.
Open the Target URL link in a new tab to sanity-check destinations, and use the Source Post pencil link when you need the block editor context for richer rewrites.
Edit anchors
Each anchor cell exposes a hover affordance titled Double-click to edit. Activating edit mode swaps the label for an input plus Save and Cancel controls. Successful writes surface a success toast conceptually labeled Anchor Updated with detail Anchor text saved successfully; empty submissions return Invalid Input / Anchor text cannot be empty.
| Source Post | Anchor Text | Target URL | Type | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Docs hub |
Save
Cancel
|
docs.example.com/audits | Internal | Dofollow |
Row chrome highlights in orange while editing, then briefly flashes green on success—matching the .editing / .saved transitions in wp-admin CSS.
Filter to the story you are fixing
Narrow Type to Internal when you only want on-site anchors, or search for a slug fragment to isolate one campaign landing page.
Double-click, edit, confirm
Keep anchors specific; the UI rejects blank strings because an empty visible label would break reader expectations.
Add / remove links
The Link Editor focuses on rewriting the visible anchor string for an existing hyperlink that the scanner already indexed. To remove a link entirely or to add a brand-new anchor in content, open the originating Source Post from the first column—the table is a control surface, not a block editor surrogate.
Fixing copy does not repair a Broken destination. Pair anchor clean-up with redirect work, permalink repairs, or removal inside the post body when the URL itself is dead.
- Add: Insert or select text in the block editor, attach the desired URL, publish, then let the next scan ingest the relationship.
- Remove: Delete the hyperlink (or sentence) inside the source post; the indexed row disappears after the crawler reconciles HTML.
- Preview: Use front-of-site preview from the post screen if you need layout assurance—Link Editor cells are textual, not visual WYSIWYG.
Workflow with graph
Start in Link Graph visualization when you want the story of hubs and orphans, drop into Link Editor for anchor-level surgery, then confirm aggregate shifts inside Link Reports & analytics. The loop below keeps teams from editing in a vacuum.
Link Graph (read-only mock)
Spot over-optimized clusters before you rename anchors in bulk.
Link Editor execution
Filters + pagination walk the rows you flagged in analytics. Post HTML updates on Save; KPI tiles and aggregates catch up after the next committed scan snapshot.
Treat the Link Editor as the narrow “vertex edit” step: Graph shows pressure, Editor applies copy, scans rehydrate metrics for Total Links and status badges.
Troubleshooting
- Save Failed / network errors: Retry after confirming you are still logged in with admin rights; the AJAX path requires a valid nonce just like other Tools screens.
- Row will not enter edit mode: Ensure you are double-clicking the anchor span, not the Source Post link; the outer anchor opens the editor in a new tab.
- Changes not reflected in Link Editor: Remember pagination—use Search or advance pages with the controls that print Page %d of %d (%s links) in wp-admin.