You've run an audit with a site audit crawler like SiteAuditLint, and the report lists critical, medium, and low-priority issues. You start working through them one by one. Then you get to the internal links.
Important pages have only a few links pointing to them. Some pages sit several clicks away from everything else. There are orphan pages with no internal links at all, links pointing to redirects, broken URLs, generic anchor text, and even internal links marked nofollow.
That's when you realize internal linking isn't just adding a link whenever you mention another page. The way pages link to each other is the structure search engines and users follow through your website. A well-connected site makes important pages easy to reach. A poorly connected one leaves useful content buried, isolated, or hard to discover.
Here's how to audit your internal links and find the areas that need fixing.
Why Internal Links Matter
An internal link connects one page on your website to another page on the same website. For users, it's a way to move between relevant pages. For search engines, it's a crawl path plus context about how pages relate to each other.
Discovery
Search engines find important pages through crawlable links.
Navigation
Users reach related content without going back to the main menu.
Link equity
Important pages receive links, and the signals that come with them, from relevant pages.
Topical context
Search engines understand how topics and entities relate across the site.
Shorter paths
Pages become reachable through fewer clicks.
Anchor context
Anchor text describes what the destination page is about.
Internal Link Structure
Think of your website as a network of connected pages, not a pile of individual URLs. A typical structure looks something like this:
- Homepage
- Category
- Article
- Article
- Article
- Category
- Product
- Product
- Service
- Supporting page
- Supporting page
- Category
The exact structure depends on the site, but important pages shouldn't sit in isolation. During an audit, look at which pages receive the most internal links, which receive very few, and how easily important URLs can be reached.
An important page reached only through a single navigation link.
Multiple relevant paths from categories, related articles, and contextual links all lead to it.
This is the same principle behind pillar pages and topic clusters: a core page on a subject, supported by related pages that link to it and to each other.
Important Pages With Few Internal Links
A page can be indexed and still be poorly connected. Imagine a service page that generates leads and targets an important commercial keyword. If only the main navigation links to it, it may have far fewer internal connections than pages that matter much less to the business.
Inbound internal links: a mismatch to look for
The page that matters most has the fewest links. That's the pattern to catch.
Look for important pages with unusually low internal link counts:
| Page type | What to check |
|---|---|
| Money pages | Are relevant articles and category pages linking to them? |
| Important guides | Are related pages pointing readers toward them? |
| Category pages | Do relevant child pages link back to them? |
| Conversion pages | Can users reach them from relevant content? |
A low count doesn't automatically mean a problem, and small sites naturally have fewer links. The real question is whether the number of links makes sense for the page's role.
Orphan Pages
An orphan page is a URL with no internal links pointing to it. It may still be reachable through an external link, listed in an XML sitemap, or known some other way, but no normal internal path leads to it.
Homepage → Category → ArticleConnected pages with internal paths
/orphan-page/Only reachable through the sitemap or external links. No internal path in.
Comparing your sitemap against crawl data is one of the fastest ways to find them, since sitemap URLs with no internal links are orphans by definition. Orphans often point to:
- Old content dropped from navigation
- Pages published without being connected
- Incorrect internal linking
- Migration problems
- Pages that should no longer exist
Orphan is still valuable
- Add relevant internal links from related pages
Orphan is obsolete
- Update it, redirect it, or remove it
Crawl Paths and Click Depth
Internal links create crawl paths between URLs. If a crawler starting at the homepage can reach an important page through several relevant links, that page is part of the site's crawlable structure.
Click depth is the number of links a user or crawler must follow to reach a page from a starting point, usually the homepage.
- 0HomepageThe starting point.
- 1CategoryOne click away.
- 2SubcategoryTwo clicks away.
- 3ArticleThree clicks away, deeper than any page linked straight from the homepage.
There's no universal click count that makes a page bad. Large sites are naturally deeper than small ones, and "within three clicks" is a common rule of thumb, not a requirement. The useful question is whether important pages are unnecessarily buried.
A key service page sits five clicks deep while an old tag archive is one click from the homepage.
The most important pages are the easiest to reach.
Anchor Text
Anchor text is the clickable text of a link:
<a href="/technical-seo-checklist">technical SEO checklist</a>
"Technical SEO checklist" tells users exactly what they'll find after clicking. Good internal anchor text describes the destination naturally and fits the surrounding sentence.
"Click here"
No information about the destination.
"technical SEO checklist"
Natural, specific, reads well in the sentence.
"best cheap technical SEO checklist 2026"
Keyword-stuffed, awkward for readers.
Compare "Read more about technical SEO checklists" with "Read more about technical SEO." The first is more specific about the destination. Neither should be forced in just to include a keyword. The anchor has to make sense to the person reading.
Generic Anchors
Generic anchors are phrases like these:
- Click here
- Read more
- Learn more
- View page
- More information
They aren't automatically wrong. They can work when the surrounding text already makes the destination clear. The problem is a site that relies on them heavily, giving little context about where links lead. Watch for empty anchors too, such as icon or image links with no text or alt attribute.
Our audit guide explains everything. Read more.
Read our technical SEO audit guide for the full process.
Nofollow Internal Links
Internal links can carry the nofollow attribute:
<a href="/important-page" rel="nofollow">Important page</a>
A site may have legitimate reasons for specific uses, such as login or cart links. But nofollow on important internal links is a red flag. It's a leftover from old "PageRank sculpting" tactics that no longer work, and it tells search engines not to pass signals through links you actually want them to follow.
nofollow, find out why those links were marked that way and whether the attribute is actually needed. Often it's a theme or plugin default.Links to Redirects
A common internal linking problem is linking to a URL that redirects somewhere else. If internal links still point to /old-page, every click and crawl has to pass through the redirect first.
When the final destination is known and stable, update internal links to point directly to it. That removes an unnecessary step and keeps internal references aligned with current URLs. Our guide to redirects covers chains and loops in more depth.
Links to Broken URLs
Broken internal links are more straightforward: a page links to a URL that returns an error or fails to reach the intended destination. Common causes:
- 404 URLs
- 410 URLs
- Incorrect URL paths
- Deleted pages
- Links broken during migrations
- Typos in manually entered URLs
Every broken internal link should be investigated. The fix depends on the situation:
Destination moved
- Update the link to the new URL
Page gone, alternative exists
- Replace with the relevant alternative
No useful replacement
- Remove the link
See our full walkthrough on how to find and fix broken internal links.
Contextual Links
Contextual links sit within the main content, where they're relevant to what the reader is currently reading. An article about technical SEO might naturally link to pages on HTTP status codes, redirects, canonical URLs, or XML sitemaps.
These are often more valuable than another navigation menu item because they connect related topics at the exact moment the reader needs more information. They also carry more context for search engines than boilerplate footer or sidebar links.
When auditing contextual links, ask:
- Does the destination genuinely relate to the sentence or section?
- Does the link help the reader continue their research?
- Is the anchor text descriptive?
- Is an important page missing from relevant content?
<a href> elements rather than click handlers. Our guide to JavaScript links explains why.Internal Linking for Important Pages
Not every page needs the same number of internal links. Start with the pages that matter most:
- Core service pages
- Product pages
- Category pages
- Important landing pages
- High-value informational content
- Pages supporting key search topics
Then look for relevant places to link to them from elsewhere on the site. If five articles cover different aspects of a subject and you have one in-depth page on it, those five articles are natural places to link to that page.
Article: status codes
Article: redirects
Article: canonicals
Article: XML sitemaps
Article: robots.txt
Technical SEO guideReceives contextual links from every supporting article.
The goal isn't as many links as possible. It's useful connections between pages.
How to Audit Internal Links
A practical internal link audit breaks down into nine steps. Google Search Console's Links report gives a rough view of your top linked pages, but a crawl gives you the full picture.
- 1Crawl the websiteCollect internal links, destination URLs, status codes, anchor text, and link attributes. You need the link data before you can understand the structure.
- 2Find pages with few internal linksCompare each important page's inbound link count against its role. A low count isn't automatically a problem, but an important page with almost no references deserves a closer look.
- 3Find orphan pagesIdentify URLs with no internal links. Decide whether each needs links, should be removed, or needs another URL change.
- 4Review click depthCheck how many steps separate important pages from the main entry points. Look for key content buried deep.
- 5Check link destinationsFind links pointing to broken URLs, redirecting URLs, incorrect URL formats, or unwanted URLs. Update them to the correct final destination.
- 6Review anchor textFind generic anchors and important pages consistently linked with vague or unrelated text.
- 7Check nofollow linksReview internal links with
rel="nofollow", especially those pointing to pages central to your organic search strategy. - 8Find contextual link opportunitiesLook for closely related pages that don't link to each other yet.
- 9Prioritize important pagesDon't treat every issue equally. Start with the high-impact problems below.
Prioritize by impact
Fix first
- Broken internal links
- Orphaned important pages
- Links to redirects at scale
- Major crawl path gaps
Then improve
- Low-linked money pages
- Deeply buried key content
- Unnecessary nofollow
- Missing contextual links
Polish last
- Generic anchor text
- Minor anchor wording
- Low-value orphan cleanup
Internal Linking Audit Checklist
| Check | What to look for | Possible action |
|---|---|---|
| Internal link count | Important pages with few links | Add relevant internal links |
| Orphan pages | Pages with no internal links | Link, update, redirect, or remove |
| Crawl paths | Important pages with limited paths | Create useful connections |
| Click depth | Important pages buried several levels deep | Improve site structure where appropriate |
| Anchor text | Unclear or unrelated anchors | Use descriptive, natural anchors |
| Generic anchors | Excessive "click here" or "read more" | Improve wording where useful |
| Nofollow | Important internal links marked nofollow | Review whether the attribute is needed |
| Redirects | Internal links to redirecting URLs | Link directly to the final URL |
| Broken links | Internal links returning errors | Fix, replace, or remove |
| Contextual links | Related pages that aren't connected | Add relevant in-content links |
Internal Linking Is a Structure Problem, Not a Link Count
A website can have thousands of internal links and still have a poor internal linking structure. The useful questions aren't "how many internal links does this site have?" They're these:
- Can important pages be reached easily?
- Are valuable pages connected to relevant content?
- Are there orphan pages?
- Are important pages buried too deeply?
- Do internal links point directly to the correct URLs?
- Does the anchor text describe the destination?
- Are broken and redirected internal links being cleaned up?
Once you treat internal linking as a structure, the audit becomes far more useful. You're not just counting links. You're finding gaps in the paths that connect the site's pages.
On a small website, you can review links manually. But once a site has hundreds or thousands of URLs, finding every orphan page, broken internal link, redirecting link, overly deep crawl path, and low-linked important page gets tedious.
That's where a crawler helps. SiteAuditLint's internal link analysis crawls the website and surfaces internal linking problems, so you can see which pages need attention instead of checking URLs one by one.