I used the Page Properties Report macro with the 'including text' filter, e.g. with some search phrase SEARCHTEXT. The macro lists all pages that include this search phrase as text, but not if it is included in a link, that is a reference to another confluence page. Thus, pages are not listed that contain the SEARCHTEXT in either a link or as the representation of the link. I looked into the Page Properties Report macro documentation, but it does not detail which parts of pages is considered by the including text filter.
Are there further information about the macros text filter?
Is there any possibility to search for text phrases in links?