An internal link checker analyzes the links between pages on your own site to show which pages are well linked, which are under-linked, and which are orphans with no internal links at all. Upload a Screaming Frog inlinks export to the QCK Internal Link Checker to find those pages, then add links to the ones that matter most for your business.
What internal links are and what a checker does
Internal links are links from one page on your domain to another page on the same domain: navigation menus, breadcrumbs, product grids, related products and links inside body copy. They do three jobs:
- Discovery: crawlers find pages mainly by following links. A page with no internal links is hard to discover even if it is in your sitemap.
- Importance: pages that receive more internal links, especially from strong pages, are signaled as more important.
- Context: the anchor text and surrounding copy tell search engines what the linked page is about.
An internal link checker counts the internal links pointing at each URL, identifies where they come from, and flags pages that fall below a healthy level.
Why internal linking matters for SEO, AI search and revenue
Internal linking is one of the few ranking levers fully under your control. You cannot force another site to link to you, but you can decide which of your pages get links from your homepage, navigation and top content.
On e-commerce sites, internal links decide how authority flows from the homepage and popular content to collections and products. A seasonal collection buried four clicks deep, or a high-margin product that only appears on page six of a category, is unlikely to rank well. On B2B sites, service pages often get few contextual links from the blog content that attracts traffic.
AI crawlers discover content the same way search crawlers do: by following links. A well-linked page is easier for them to find, and links with clear anchors help them understand how your content fits together.
How to use the QCK internal link checker
- Crawl your site with Screaming Frog SEO Spider. To help detect orphan pages, configure the crawl to include URLs from your XML sitemap as well as linked pages.
- When the crawl finishes, export your internal links. In Screaming Frog, use Bulk Export, then Links, then All Inlinks.
- Open the Internal Link Checker and upload the CSV, or paste its contents.
- Run the analysis.
- Review the orphan pages list and the under-linked pages list, along with the link counts for each URL.
- Download or note the pages to fix, starting with those that drive revenue or target valuable keywords.
Large sites produce large exports. If the file is too big to handle comfortably, crawl or export one section at a time, such as products or the blog.
How to read the results and fix common issues
| Finding | What it means | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Orphan page | No internal links point to it | Link to it from relevant pages, or redirect or remove it if it should not exist |
| Under-linked important page | A key page gets few links | Add contextual links from related, high-traffic pages and consider navigation placement |
| Links only from navigation or footer | No contextual links in body content | Add links within relevant copy, using descriptive anchors |
| Many links to redirects | Internal links point to old URLs | Update links to point at the final URL |
| Many links to low-value pages | Authority flows to pages that do not need it | Reduce sitewide links to tag pages, filters or old campaigns |
Where to add links first
- Find the pages with the most traffic and backlinks (your Search Console Pages report and a backlink tool will show them).
- From those, add links to under-linked commercial pages that are topically related.
- Add links from new content to older important pages, and from older well-ranked content to new pages.
- Use breadcrumbs and related product or related article modules to create consistent links at scale.
Internal linking tips and mistakes to avoid
- Use descriptive anchor text. "Women's trail running shoes" tells a crawler more than "shop now". The anchor text guide covers this in depth.
- Use real HTML links. Google can reliably follow
<a>elements with anhref. Links that only work through JavaScript click handlers may not be followed. - Keep important pages shallow. Key collections and products should be reachable in a few clicks from the homepage.
- Do not link everything to everything. Hundreds of links in a mega menu dilute emphasis. Prioritize.
- Do not nofollow internal links. Nofollow on internal links does not usefully sculpt authority. Remove links you do not want instead.
- Recheck after redesigns. Navigation changes can orphan whole sections. Run a new crawl after any template change.
- Fix cannibalization with links. Internal links can clarify which page should rank for a query. See the keyword cannibalization guide.
Internal linking strategy across a large catalog or content library is part of our technical SEO and e-commerce SEO work. We map authority flow and restructure navigation and modules so the right pages get the links.