Internal Link Checker
Audit a page's internal links from its HTML. Check anchor text, nofollow, duplicates, URL consistency, and run optional live status checks on your own site.
Page to analyse
Summary
Only links found in the HTML you paste are analysed. Links added later by JavaScript are not included.
Findings
Links found
| # | Type | Anchor text | Link | Flags | Issues |
|---|
Top internal anchor texts
| Anchor text | Links | Pages |
|---|
Varied, descriptive anchor text helps users and search engines understand each target page.
Most linked internal pages
| Target URL | Links | Anchors |
|---|
Counts are for this page only, not site-wide inbound links.
Known URLs not linked from this page
Live status check (same domain only)
Copy & export
Everything is processed in your browser. Your HTML is never uploaded or executed.
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Find and Analyze Internal Links on Your Website
An Internal Link Checker helps you examine the links connecting pages within your website. Use it to review internal link destinations, understand how pages connect, identify broken links, and find opportunities to improve your website's navigation and SEO structure.
Regular internal link checks can help you maintain a well-connected website as you publish new articles, update old content, restructure URLs, and expand your service or product pages. Identifying link problems early makes your website easier to navigate and helps search engines discover relevant content.
What Is an Internal Link Checker?
An Internal Link Checker is an SEO tool that examines links pointing from one page of a website to another page on the same website. These links are known as internal links and form an important part of your site's navigation and content structure.
For example, a blog post about technical SEO might link to a related article about website crawling, a guide to XML sitemaps, or a technical SEO service page. These contextual connections help visitors explore related information without having to return to the homepage or search for every resource separately.
An internal link checker can help you inspect these connections and identify potential problems. Depending on its capabilities, it may check a single webpage or crawl multiple pages across an entire website. Some tools focus on links and their destinations, while more comprehensive auditing tools also examine anchor text, incoming links, redirect paths, and pages that receive no internal links.
Unlike an external link checker, which examines links pointing to other websites, an internal link checker focuses on connections within your own site. This makes it especially useful for maintaining content structure, diagnosing broken navigation paths, and improving internal linking as a website grows.
Why Are Internal Links Important for SEO?
Internal links help establish relationships between webpages and provide routes through which users and search engine crawlers can discover content. A carefully planned internal linking structure makes related resources easier to find and helps communicate how different topics fit together.
Help Search Engines Discover Pages
Internal links provide crawlable paths to other webpages. Linking to important content from relevant pages can make that content easier for search engines to discover.
Improve Website Navigation
Relevant links guide visitors toward supporting information, related articles, product categories, and service pages that may answer their next question.
Clarify Content Relationships
Links between related resources help demonstrate how topics connect across your website and give users a clearer path through your content.
Support Important Pages
Internal links can direct visitors and crawlers toward valuable landing pages, cornerstone articles, product pages, and other priority URLs.
Identify Broken Links
Checking internal destinations helps you find links that lead to missing pages, incorrect URLs, or other unsuccessful responses.
Maintain a Healthy Site Structure
Regular checks help you spot disconnected content, unnecessary redirects, weak linking paths, and other issues as your website changes.
Important SEO note: Internal linking can support crawlability, navigation, and your site's information structure, but it does not guarantee indexing or higher rankings. The quality, relevance, accessibility, and usefulness of the destination page still matter.
How to Use an Internal Link Checker
The exact process depends on whether your checker analyzes one webpage or crawls an entire website. Use the following workflow to review internal links and decide which issues need attention first.
Enter Your Website or Page URL
Provide the website address or specific webpage you want to inspect. For a larger website, make sure the auditing tool supports a crawl covering the relevant sections and page types.
Run the Link Check
Start the analysis and allow the tool to inspect available internal links. The coverage depends on crawl limits, page accessibility, rendering support, and the functionality of the checker.
Review Internal Link Destinations
Check the source page, target URL, and link status where these details are available. Confirm that important links direct visitors to the intended destination.
Identify Problems
Look for broken links, incorrect destinations, redirecting URLs, unclear anchor text, and important pages that lack sufficient incoming internal links.
Fix High-Priority Issues
Repair links to missing pages, update outdated URLs, replace misleading anchor text, and add relevant links to useful content where appropriate.
Check the Results Again
Repeat the analysis after making changes. Confirm that updated links reach the correct destinations and that important pages remain accessible through useful internal paths.
What Can an Internal Link Checker Find?
Internal link analysis can reveal several types of problems that are easy to overlook during routine content publishing. The specific findings vary depending on the tool and the scope of the crawl.
1. Broken Internal Links
A broken internal link points to a destination that cannot be accessed successfully. Common causes include deleted pages, mistyped URLs, changed page addresses, and outdated links left behind after a website redesign.
For example, an older blog article might link to a service page that has since been deleted. Reviewing the source URL and destination response helps you decide whether to update the link, restore the missing page, or redirect the old URL when appropriate.
2. Redirecting Internal Links
An internal link may lead to a URL that redirects to another address. Redirects are sometimes necessary, especially when pages have moved, but repeatedly linking to outdated URLs can create unnecessary redirect hops.
Where appropriate, update internal links to point directly to the preferred final destination. Before changing a URL, verify the correct replacement and preserve redirects that are still needed for existing visitors or external references.
3. Orphan Pages
An orphan page is a webpage that has no incoming internal links from other pages within the relevant website or crawl scope. Such a page can be difficult for visitors to discover through normal site navigation.
Pages with no incoming links may still be known to search engines through XML sitemaps, external links, or other discovery methods. However, relying exclusively on those methods can leave useful content disconnected from the rest of your website.
Review orphan-page candidates to determine whether each page is valuable. Add relevant internal links to pages worth retaining, or consider updating, consolidating, or removing outdated content as appropriate.
4. Weak or Insufficient Internal Linking
Some important pages receive very few internal links even though they deserve more visibility. An internal link audit can help identify priority content that is not adequately connected to related resources.
Consider linking to these pages from relevant articles, category pages, topic hubs, or service pages. Focus on natural opportunities that help visitors find additional information instead of adding links solely to increase a numerical count.
5. Unclear Anchor Text
Anchor text is the clickable wording used in a hyperlink. Descriptive anchor text gives readers and search engines context about the destination, while vague phrases may provide little information.
Review generic anchors such as "click here" or repeated, unnatural keyword phrases. Replace them with concise wording that accurately describes the linked page when a more helpful option fits the surrounding sentence.
6. Links Pointing to the Wrong Destination
An internal link can open successfully but still lead to the wrong resource. This may happen after URL changes, content migrations, manual editing errors, or incorrect links in reusable website templates.
Check the destination content as well as the HTTP response. A successful status code alone does not confirm that the page answers the visitor's question or matches the link's anchor text.
Types of Internal Links to Review
| Internal Link Type | Purpose | What to Check |
|---|---|---|
| Navigation links | Help visitors access main site sections. | Confirm important menu links reach the correct pages. |
| Contextual links | Connect related information within page content. | Review relevance, anchor text, and destination accuracy. |
| Breadcrumb links | Show a page's position within the website hierarchy. | Check that each breadcrumb points to the appropriate parent page. |
| Related-content links | Recommend supporting articles, products, or resources. | Make sure the recommendations are useful and relevant. |
| Footer links | Provide access to selected resources and important pages. | Check destinations and remove outdated or unnecessary entries. |
| Image links | Allow users to navigate by selecting an image. | Verify the destination and provide meaningful alternative text when appropriate. |
Internal Link Checker vs. External Link Checker
Both tools help maintain link quality, but they examine different relationships. Understanding the distinction makes it easier to choose the right approach for your SEO audit.
| Feature | Internal Link Checker | External Link Checker |
|---|---|---|
| Link destination | Another page on your own website. | A page on a different website. |
| Main purpose | Review site connectivity and internal navigation. | Review links pointing to outside websites. |
| Typical issues | Broken internal URLs, weak linking paths, and orphan-page candidates. | Unavailable external destinations, outdated references, and broken citations. |
| Common fixes | Update URLs, repair destinations, and improve relevant internal links. | Replace, remove, or correct outdated external references. |
Many comprehensive website auditing tools examine both internal and external links. For an internal linking review, start with the connections between your own pages, then investigate external destinations separately if your audit also covers outbound links.
How to Improve Your Internal Linking Strategy
Finding problems is only the first step. A useful internal linking strategy prioritizes relevant connections that improve navigation and help search engines discover your most important resources.
- Link to relevant content: Add links where they help readers understand a topic, explore a related question, or complete an action.
- Use descriptive anchor text: Make the clickable wording meaningful and consistent with the destination page.
- Keep important pages accessible: Link to priority pages from relevant sections of your site instead of relying entirely on search or sitemap discovery.
- Build logical topic clusters: Connect related articles, comprehensive guides, and useful service or product pages where the relationships make sense.
- Review older content: Update existing articles with relevant links to newer resources when those additions genuinely help readers.
- Fix broken destinations: Correct outdated URLs and verify that replacement pages are suitable for the original context.
- Avoid excessive linking: Add links for a clear purpose rather than forcing multiple links into every paragraph.
- Check important templates: Review navigation, breadcrumbs, footer links, and related-content sections that appear across many pages.
- Monitor changes: Recheck internal links after site migrations, URL updates, content deletions, or large publishing projects.
Writing Better Internal Link Anchor Text
Anchor text provides context about the page a hyperlink leads to. Effective anchor text is descriptive, reasonably concise, and natural within the surrounding content.
Less descriptive:
Read our guide to website performance. Click here to learn more.
More descriptive:
Read our guide to improving website performance for practical optimization steps.
The second example gives readers a clearer idea of what they will find after clicking. When auditing anchors, focus on meaning and usefulness instead of forcing exact-match keywords into every link.
Descriptive anchors can vary naturally depending on context. Avoid using the same keyword-rich phrase repeatedly when it does not fit the sentence or accurately describe the destination.
Common Internal Linking Mistakes to Avoid
Leaving Valuable Pages Disconnected
Publishing a page does not automatically make it easy to find through internal navigation. Review important new pages and identify relevant existing content that can link to them.
Ignoring Links After URL Changes
Changing a page address without updating internal references can leave outdated links throughout your website. Review affected pages and update links to the correct destination wherever possible.
Using Generic Anchor Text Everywhere
Repeated anchors such as "read more" may offer little context when viewed independently. Use descriptive wording when it helps readers understand the destination.
Adding Irrelevant Links for SEO
Internal links should support the reader's journey. Linking unrelated pages simply to increase link counts can make content harder to understand and weaken the usefulness of your navigation.
Assuming a Successful Status Means a Healthy Link
A destination can return a successful response while displaying irrelevant content or an unexpected page. Review the actual destination, canonical URL, and surrounding context when investigating suspicious links.
Relying on One Type of Audit
A single-page checker may not reveal sitewide orphan pages or relationships across hundreds of URLs. Match the audit method to your requirements and supplement it with a broader crawl when necessary.
Who Should Use an Internal Link Checker?
SEO Specialists
Identify technical linking issues, review anchor text, and improve the discoverability of important website pages.
Bloggers and Content Writers
Connect related articles, update older posts, and help readers find additional information within a content library.
Website Owners
Maintain working navigation and identify links that need attention after publishing or updating website content.
Ecommerce Businesses
Review connections between product pages, categories, buying guides, and other relevant shopping resources.
Digital Marketing Agencies
Include internal linking checks in technical SEO audits, content reviews, and ongoing website maintenance.
Developers and Publishers
Check link integrity after redesigns, CMS migrations, URL restructuring, and changes to reusable page templates.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an Internal Link Checker?
An Internal Link Checker is an SEO tool that examines links connecting pages on the same website. Depending on its features, it can help identify broken destinations, review anchor text, inspect link relationships, and highlight potential gaps in internal linking.
Is an Internal Link Checker free to use?
Some internal link checkers offer free checks, while others provide advanced crawling, reporting, and auditing features through paid plans. The available limits depend on the specific tool, including the number of URLs it can inspect and the types of issues it can identify.
What is the difference between internal and external links?
Internal links connect pages within the same website, while external links point to pages on other websites. Internal links support navigation and content discovery across your site, whereas external links connect readers to resources outside your website.
Can an Internal Link Checker find broken links?
Yes, a checker that tests link destinations can identify internal links that lead to unsuccessful HTTP responses or unavailable pages. The report may also help identify redirects and other destination issues. Results depend on the tool's testing capabilities and whether the destination is accessible to its crawler.
What is an orphan page in SEO?
An orphan page is a webpage that has no incoming internal links from other pages within the relevant site or audit scope. These pages can be difficult to discover through normal navigation. Adding relevant links from suitable pages can improve accessibility, although orphan pages may still be discovered through other methods.
How often should I check internal links?
Check internal links periodically and after significant website changes, including redesigns, migrations, URL updates, and large content publishing projects. Websites that publish frequently or contain thousands of pages may benefit from more regular automated monitoring.
Do internal links help Google index pages?
Internal links can help Google discover pages by providing crawlable paths from other pages. However, linking to a page does not guarantee that it will be indexed. Indexing also depends on factors such as accessibility, canonicalization, content quality, and search engine processing.
How many internal links should a webpage have?
There is no universal ideal number of internal links for every webpage. The appropriate number depends on the page's length, topic, purpose, and navigation needs. Include links that help readers and search engines understand relevant relationships, and avoid adding links solely to reach a target count.
What makes a good internal link anchor text?
Good internal link anchor text clearly and naturally describes the destination. It should help readers understand what they can expect after clicking. Avoid vague wording when a more descriptive phrase fits, but do not force exact-match keywords or repeat them unnaturally.
Can a single-page checker audit an entire website?
Not necessarily. Some tools inspect the links on one supplied page, while others crawl multiple URLs and generate a sitewide report. Check the tool's stated crawl limits, rendering support, and coverage before relying on it for a comprehensive audit.
Can an Internal Link Checker find every orphan page?
Only if the auditing process has sufficient information to identify the relevant pages and their incoming links. A crawler may miss pages that are inaccessible, excluded from its crawl, or available only through mechanisms it cannot process. Comparing crawl results with your URL inventory or sitemap can help identify additional pages requiring investigation.
Will fixing internal links improve my Google rankings?
Fixing broken links and improving relevant internal connections can support navigation, crawlability, and content discovery. These improvements may contribute to a healthier SEO structure, but rankings depend on many factors, and correcting internal links does not guarantee a ranking increase.
Keep Your Website's Internal Links Healthy
Regular internal link checks help you maintain useful connections between your website's pages. Review broken destinations, improve descriptive anchor text, investigate disconnected content, and ensure that important pages are accessible through relevant links. A well-maintained internal linking structure creates a clearer experience for visitors and supports search engines as they discover and understand your content.