Technical Internal Link Audits
An internal link audit examines how pages on your website connect, identifying broken links, orphan pages, weak anchor text and important pages with insufficient internal authority. Audit your linking structure, prioritise fixes and strengthen crawlability, navigation and organic visibility.
Map Your Internal Linking Structure
An internal link audit reviews the links between pages on your website to assess crawlability, navigation and the distribution of internal authority. It identifies broken links, orphan pages, unclear anchor text and important content that receives too few relevant links.
A crawl maps each link and shows how search engines and users move through your site. Check whether key pages are reachable, whether links point to the correct canonical URLs, and whether redirects, nofollow attributes or excessive click depth weaken the pathway.
Use the findings to repair broken links, add links to orphaned content and improve anchor text with clear, descriptive wording. Prioritise links from relevant, authoritative pages to content that supports your business goals, then re-crawl the site to confirm each change.
Internal Link Audit Checks
Internal link audit checks assess how links connect pages, guide visitors and distribute authority. They identify broken destinations, orphan pages, excessive click depth, weak anchor text and links bypassing canonical URLs.
Review findings by page importance, then repair, remove or add links as appropriate. The checks below separate technical faults from opportunities to improve crawlability, navigation and access to valuable content.
Identify and prioritise issues across your internal linking structure
Broken Internal Links
Find links returning errors or pointing to unavailable URLs so visitors and crawlers are not sent into dead ends.
Orphaned Pages
Locate indexable pages with no internal links pointing to them, then connect valuable content to the relevant sections of your site.
Redirected Destinations
Identify links that pass through redirects and update them to the final destination to reduce unnecessary crawl steps and improve user journeys.
Canonical URL Alignment
Check that internal links reference the preferred canonical URL rather than duplicate, parameterised or alternate versions of the same page.
Anchor Text Clarity
Review link wording for relevance and clarity so users and search engines can understand the destination before following it.
Internal Authority Flow
Assess whether commercially important and strategically valuable pages receive enough relevant links from established pages across the site.
Click Depth
Measure how many navigation steps separate important pages from accessible entry points, highlighting content that is difficult to reach.
Link Attribute Checks
Inspect internal nofollow and other restrictive attributes to confirm that links support normal crawling and the intended transfer of internal signals.
Questions About Internal Link Audits
What is an internal link audit?
An internal link audit examines links between your website’s pages, finding broken destinations, orphaned content, weak anchor text and crawl barriers so you can prioritise practical improvements across your site.
Which internal links should you prioritise during an audit?
Prioritise links to commercially important, high-value and recently updated pages, plus links currently broken, redirected, orphaned or buried deeply. Fix crawl-critical paths before refining anchor text or broader navigation issues.
How do you identify orphan pages in an internal link audit?
Use a crawl to find indexable pages with no incoming internal links, then verify navigation, XML sitemap and canonical data. Add relevant contextual links or remove unnecessary orphaned pages entirely.