What internal links are and why you might need to find them
An internal link is a clickable link on one page of a website that points to a different page on the same website. When you find internal links to a page, you are looking for all the places within that site where someone has created a link pointing toward it.
You might need to find these links for several reasons. If you manage a website, you want to know which of your own pages link to each other — this helps you understand how visitors move through your site and whether important pages are straightforward to discover. If you are researching how a website is organized, internal links show you the structure and hierarchy. If you are fixing a broken page, you need to know which other pages link to it so you can update those links.
The method you use depends on whether you own the website, have access to its backend, or are only looking at it as a visitor from the outside.
Key Takeaways
- Internal links are links from one page on a website to another page on the same website, and finding them shows you how pages connect to each other.
- If you own the website or have admin access, your content management system (like WordPress) has a built-in tool to show you which pages link to any given page.
- If you are looking at a website you do not own, you can use your browser's search function to look for links on individual pages, or use free online tools that crawl the site.
- Search engines like Google show some internal links in their search results, but they do not show you a complete list of every internal link on a site.
Finding internal links if you manage the website
If you use WordPress, the easiest method is the built-in "Backlinks" or "Links" feature. Log into your WordPress dashboard, go to the page you want to check, and look for a section called "Backlinks" or "Link" in the sidebar. WordPress will show you every other page on your site that links to that page. The exact location and name of this feature varies slightly depending on your WordPress version and theme, but it is always in the page editor itself.
If you use a different content management system — Squarespace, Wix, Shopify, or another platform — check your system's documentation or help section for "backlinks," "internal links," or "link reports." Most modern platforms include this feature because site owners need to understand how their pages connect.
If you have access to Google Search Console (the free tool Google provides to website owners), you can also see internal links there. Log in with the account that owns the website, select the property, go to "Links," and choose "Internal links." This shows you which pages on your site link to each other, though it may take a few days for Google to crawl and report new links.
Finding internal links using your browser
If you want to check a specific page manually, open the page in your browser and use the search function. Press Ctrl+F (Windows) or Command+F (Mac) to open the search box. Type the page's URL or a unique word from the page's title, then search through the page. Every match the browser finds is a link to that page — but this only shows links on the current page you are viewing, not links from other pages on the site.
This method is slow if the site is large, because you would have to visit each page individually and search for the link. It works well only if you are checking a small site or a specific section you already know about.
Using free online tools to find internal links
Several free websites let you enter a URL and see all the internal links on that site. Screaming Frog SEO Spider is one of the most popular — it crawls a website and creates a map of all the pages and how they link to each other. You can read the free version, paste in the website's main URL, and let it run. After it finishes, you can search for a specific page and see every internal link pointing to it.
Other free tools include Ahrefs' Site Explorer (limited free version), Moz's Link Explorer, and smaller tools like LinkMiner. Most of these require you to create a free account. Enter the website URL, wait for the tool to crawl the site, then search for the page you are interested in. The tool will show you a list of internal pages that link to it.
These tools work on any website, whether you own it or not. The trade-off is that they take longer to run than a built-in feature, and free versions often have limits on how many pages they can crawl or how many results they show you.
What Google Search Console shows you
If you own the website and have set it up in Google Search Console, you get a report of internal links without needing a third-party tool. Log in, select your website property, and go to Links. Click "Internal links" to see which pages on your site link to each other most often.
This report is useful because it comes directly from Google's own crawl of your site, so it is accurate. However, it only works if you own the website and have verified it in Search Console. It also takes time — Google may not report a new internal link for several days after you create it.
Understanding what the results mean
When you find internal links to a page, you will usually see a list showing the source page (where the link is) and sometimes the anchor text (the clickable words of the link). A page might have many internal links pointing to it, or very few. A page with many internal links is usually important to the site's structure, because the site owner or content team has linked to it from multiple places.
If an important page has very few internal links, it might be hard for visitors to find. If a page you thought was important has no internal links at all, it is essentially hidden — visitors can only reach it if they know the exact URL or find it through a search engine.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I see internal links on a website I do not own?
Yes. You can use free crawling tools like Screaming Frog or Ahrefs' free version to see internal links on any public website. You can also manually search individual pages using your browser's search function, though this is slower. You cannot access the website's backend or admin tools unless you own it.
Why would a page have no internal links pointing to it?
A page with no internal links is usually either very new (and the site owner has not linked to it yet), orphaned (created but forgotten), or intentionally hidden. Some pages are meant to be found only through search engines or direct URLs, not through the site's navigation.
Do internal links affect how search engines rank a page?
Yes, internal links help search engines understand which pages are important on your site. A page that many other pages link to is often treated as more important. Internal links also help search engines discover and crawl pages more easily.
What is the difference between internal links and backlinks?
Internal links point from one page on your site to another page on your site. Backlinks (also called external links or inbound links) point from other websites to your site. Tools that show "backlinks" are usually showing links from outside websites, while tools showing "internal links" show connections within your own site.
If I find a broken internal link, how do I fix it?
Log into your website's content management system, find the page that contains the broken link, edit that page, and update or remove the link. Test it to make sure it now points to the correct page. If you use WordPress, you can also use plugins like Broken Link Checker to find and fix these automatically.