Internal links are the one ranking signal a site owner controls completely, and they are also the one most sites never check. Links pile up as pages are added: the newest blog post gets a menu slot, an old service page loses its only link in a redesign, and half the anchors say "read more". An internal link audit turns that accumulation into a list of specific fixes: which pages need more links, from where, and with what wording. Here is how to run one and how to read the results.

What an internal link audit measures

  • Inlinks per page: how many different pages on the site link to it. Your most important service or product pages should be near the top of that list, not near the bottom.
  • Click depth: how many clicks it takes to reach a page from the home page by following links.
  • Anchor text: the words used in each link, and whether they describe the target.
  • Link location: whether a page is linked only from the navigation and footer, or also from body text, where links carry context.
  • Link targets: whether links point straight to the final page or to a redirect or an error.

Pages with no internal links at all, known as orphan pages, are the extreme case and are part of our site architecture and internal linking strategy service. The audit also catches the far more common pages that have a link or two, all from the wrong places.

Running the internal link audit step by step

  1. Crawl the site with an SEO crawler, starting at the home page, so the crawl follows links the way a search engine does. Export every internal link with its source, target, anchor text and status code.
  2. List the pages that matter. Mark the pages that bring enquiries or sales, plus the pages that already earn links from other sites, often the home page and a few popular articles.
  3. Add Search Console data. Pages with impressions just outside the first page of results are often the quickest wins, because they are close and a few strong internal links can help.
  4. Compare. Look for important pages with few inlinks or a deep click depth, and for strong pages that link to nothing important.
  5. Write the fix list as rows: source page, target page, suggested anchor text and placement. That turns the audit into work an editor can do.

While the crawl is open, update links that point to redirects or errors so they point to the final URL, because every extra hop slows visitors and wastes crawling. Our article on technical SEO foundations covers the crawl and indexing side in more depth.

Writing anchor text for internal links

Google's link best practices ask for anchor text that is descriptive, reasonably concise and relevant to the page it points to. In practice, good anchor text for internal links:

  • Names the target's topic in words a visitor would use, such as "hard drive shredding" rather than "our services".
  • Varies naturally. Ten identical exact-match anchors pointing to one page read as forced; a mix of the service name, a question and a descriptive phrase reads as written for people.
  • Replaces "click here" and "read more", which tell neither readers nor search engines what comes next.
  • Uses a real HTML link with an href. Buttons that navigate only through JavaScript may not be followed by crawlers at all.

For image links, the image's alt text plays the role of anchor text, so write it with the same care.

Contextual links, breadcrumbs and related posts

Navigation menus can hold only a handful of links, so most of the work happens in three other places:

  • Contextual links inside the body text. A sentence that mentions a service and links to it tells both readers and search engines how the two pages relate. These are the links an internal link audit most often adds.
  • Breadcrumb navigation on every page below the top level, for example Home, then the category, then the page. Breadcrumbs reduce click depth for whole sections at once and show visitors where they are, and Google documents structured data for marking them up.
  • Related posts and related product blocks, chosen by topic rather than by date, so older articles keep receiving links after they drop off the front page of the blog.

From individual links to topic clusters

Once the obvious gaps are closed, organize the rest into topic clusters. Each subject you want to be known for gets one overview page that links to the detailed pages beneath it, and each detailed page links back to the overview and to its closest neighbors. A cluster on data destruction, for example, might connect the service page, a guide comparing wiping with shredding and a checklist article. The structure shows visitors where to go next, and it keeps the most important page of each cluster at the top of the inlinks list. Re-run the audit after every redesign or migration, because those are the moments when internal links break in bulk.

Frequently asked questions: internal link audit

How many internal links per page is too many?

There is no fixed number. Search engines can crawl pages with many links, but a page stuffed with them gives each one less weight and makes it harder for readers to choose. Link where it helps the reader; a long guide will naturally carry more links than a short product page.

Should I use nofollow on internal links?

Generally no. Google treats nofollow as a hint, and using it to steer value between your own pages does not work the way older guides claim. If a page should stay out of search results, give it a noindex tag instead.

How often should an internal link audit be done?

After any redesign, migration or large batch of new content, and otherwise a lighter check every few months on sites that publish regularly.

Do menu and footer links count?

Search engines follow them, and they help with click depth. They carry less context than a link in a relevant paragraph, which is why an audit that finds only navigation links pointing to an important page usually recommends adding contextual links as well.

Want a plan instead of a spreadsheet of problems? Our site architecture and internal linking service maps the current structure, designs the hierarchy and delivers a list of new links with source page, target and anchor text that your team can keep up after we finish. For crawl, indexing and structured data issues, see our technical SEO audit. Contact us with your site address and the pages that matter most, and we can suggest where to start.