Strategic internal linking ensures faster discovery of your site’s webpages by the search engine bots that helps them understand their internal relationships, resulting in a seamless distribution of link equity throughout the site, enhanced user experience, and a complete website and structural optimization. However, fixing your site’s internal link profile and structure is practically impossible without a thorough analysis and structural review. Let’s check out how to perform internal link analysis the right way, its importance, prerequisites, the best tool to do so, and whether it’s different from website audit or not.
The significance of internal linking analysis and regular audit of your internal link profile can never be overstressed.
✔️It offers you better insights into the existing site structure
✔️Helps you examine the link quality
✔️Lets you keep an eye on their relevance & placement
✔️Most importantly, it helps you ensure better site performance
Performing internal link analysis on time allows you to identify and fix the potential issues with your site structure & signal the complicated interrelationships between your webpages to the search engine & your visitors for faster crawling & indexing.
Hello everyone, welcome to today’s blog, where we’ll be discussing how to do an in-depth internal link analysis on your site for improved SEO.
What is Internal Link Analysis?
Internal link analysis refers to a structured and strategic process of evaluating the hyperlinks across your website that connect different webpages.
Internal links not only organize your site’s webpages & structure it the right way, but also help the search engine and visitors easily navigate across your website.
A thorough internal link analysis helps you identify the major issues in terms of your website components, such as:
👉Broken links
👉Orphan pages
👉Weak anchor texts
👉Missing pillar pages
👉Unlinked cluster pages
All these may lead to poor authority distribution across your website, confuse the search engine & visitors, leading to delayed page discovery, identification of the link between your webpages, crawling, and indexing.
Why Is Internal Linking Analysis Important for Improved SEO?
As we mentioned before, internal links help in passing down authority from the content ‘hub”/”pillar page” to the “cluster pages”.
By distributing link equity across all your webpages, internal links ensure an improved, well-defined, organized, and easy-to-navigate site structure that is easier to find, crawl, and index for the search engine, resulting in faster site rankings and better online visibility.
Conducting internal linking analysis will help you keep an eye on the effectiveness of your internal link profile, which will result in:
➡️Better accessibility of your newly published webpages
➡️Enhanced user experience
➡️Seamless link authority transfer
➡️Improved topical authority and link relevance
➡️A well-established site structure
➡️Logical relationship between different topics & site entities
➡️Reduced bounce rates
➡️Longer user sessions
➡️Faster webpage indexation and online visibility
Internal Linking Audit Vs. Analysis
They are related, but not the same!
There are some distinct differences between these two, and “it’s better that you understand the difference between internal linking audit vs. analysis before you start doing it”, says one of our link-building experts.
An internal link audit refers to a formal and systematic review of your site’s internal link profile, and the other essential strategic components, such as broken links, redirects, & other technical issues.
On the other hand, internal link analysis is a detailed and explanatory process that primarily focuses on evaluating link equity across pages, anchor text relevance, & site structure for the purpose of improving your site’s SEO health.
Here’s A Side-By-Side Comparison Between Internal Link Audit Vs. Analysis
| Internal Link Audit Vs. Analysis | |
| Internal Linking Audit | Internal Linking Analysis |
| Helps you identify broken links, redirect chains, orphan pages, & technical issues | Helps you evaluate the anchor text quality, site structure, topical and contextual relevance of the internal links added, and identify new linking opportunities |
| The purpose is to fix the site structure and other technical glitches | The primary purpose is to improve your site’s SEO performance & ensure better link equity distribution |
| To perform a strategic link audit, you need to start by crawling the site, list down the potential issues, & identify the structural errors. | To do this, you can use tools and identify pages with the most/least number of internal links, evaluate the contextual relevance of the anchor texts selected, and explore new internal linking opportunities |
| The final outcome is a crawlable, organized, and easy-to-navigate site structure | At the end of internal link analysis, you can expect to find your site completely SEO optimized |
| This focuses on improving the technical health of your internal link profile | Internal link analysis is a strategic process |
| This is a systematic and periodic process | This is more of an exploratory and continuous process |
Our experts suggest performing a thorough internal audit once a week to note down the error lists and work on them.
However, you need to do internal link analysis regularly, almost every day or on alternate days, to make sure that you’re not missing out on strategic internal link opportunities.
Prerequisites for SEO Audit Internal Links
Abiding by some prerequisites before you perform your internal link audit will help you in:
➡️Accurate data collection
➡️Precise site structure mapping
➡️Identify the key conversion pages
➡️Ensure site hierarchy
➡️Address technical issues better
➡️Improve contextual relevance
➡️Have actionable insights into the internal link profile audit
Below, we’ve mentioned three steps to get the most out of your internal link audit & analysis.
Get A Better Understanding of The Site’s Structure
For an effective internal linking audit, you must picture the site structure first.
This will help you:
✅Map the actual link equity distribution process
✅Identify the vital technical glitches like 404 (broken link) errors
✅Find out the orphan pages and redirect chains
✅Improve crawl efficiency by optimizing topical silos (grouped content)
✅Ensure enhanced user experience by structuring your webpages like a pro
Remember, a good internal linking structure works as the foundation of a well-optimized website, and understanding it beforehand will help you explore the room for further improvement.
Identify The KPIs to Track
Identifying the KPIs before you start performing an internal link audit is a data-driven approach, as it allows you to track real-time data in terms of link equity flow, broken link identification, etc.
Without active tracking of the KPIs, your internal link audit findings are mostly vague. However, when you track them, you get access to solid ground for improving your internal link profile further by addressing the potential issues.
Key KPIs to Track Include
➡️Link equity passed on
➡️Page authority
➡️Number of orphan pages
➡️Crawl/link depth
➡️Broken links
➡️Internal link volume
➡️Anchor text relevance
➡️Anchor text diversity
➡️Click-Through Rates
➡️Increase in organic traffic
➡️Boost in traffic conversion
Opt for The Best Link Audit Tool/Software
In order to perform a thorough internal link audit, you need to use the best tools and software.
They will make it easier for you to optimize your site’s internal link profile by automating the complex and time-consuming tasks of auditing.
Also, fixing the technical issues, optimizing your anchor texts, and maximizing link equity flow are easier when you use a dedicated internal link audit tool.
Things to Look for When Selecting The Tool/Software
☑️They must detect broken internal links/redirect chains
☑️They must help you in orphan page identification
☑️Must track the crawl depth accurately
☑️They must be efficient in analyzing anchor texts
☑️Must count the exact number of internal links on each webpage
☑️Should provide you with a visual & structural map for the site hierarchy
Some of The Expert-Recommended Tools/Software Include
🟩Screaming Frog SEO Spider for technical audits
🟩Ahrefs/SEMRush to explore internal link opportunities
🟩Link Whisper to audit existing internal links
🟩LinkStorm to identify broken links and fix them
🟩Sitebulb to find out orphan pages and structural visualization
🟩InLinks to suggest missing internal links
🟩Yoast SEO Premium for automated internal linking suggestions
How to Audit Website Internal Links?
Auditing your website’s internal link profile involves multiple steps that help you identify potential issues.
Below, we’ve mentioned the crucial steps for a thorough website audit.
Crawl Your Website
This refers to an automated process where the search engine bots navigate your website systematically and follow the internal links to discover, index, and analyze your content.
Crawling your site helps you identify the structural issues, redirect chains, orphan pages, find the broken links, & map the crawl depth.
👉How to Crawl Your Website?
To do this, you need to use tools like Screaming Frog SEO Spider, Ahrefs, Google Search Console, or Sitebulb.
➡️Below Are The Steps Mentioned
✅For smaller sites:
☑️Open Screaming Frog SEO Spider
☑️Enter your site domain
✅For larger sites:
☑️Use Sitebulb
☑️Enter your domain name
☑️Enable Crawl Analysis to get detailed data
Analyze The Crawl Report
Once you are done with crawling the website with Ahrefs, Screaming Frog, or Google Search Console, you need to analyze the crawl report.
This will help you identify the crawl errors, optimize crawl budget, monitor the site loading speed/SEO performance, & make sure that your webpages are not blocked or hidden from the search engine.
Here are the steps:
☑️Go to the “Internal” tab
☑️Filter by HTML
☑️Review the “Inlinks” tab at the bottom
☑️Sort by “Crawl Depth”
Doing these will allow you to see your internal webpages, to which pages they are linked, and from where, and identify the specific pages that are buried too deep in the site structure.
Identify The Link Volume Per Page
High link volume dilutes link equity.
To prevent that, you need to make sure that your webpages have only a limited number of internal links to them. However, too few links on a page won’t help the search engine to discover it.
Identifying the exact link volume per page will help you
☑️Prevent link equity dilution
☑️Maximize proper page authority distribution
☑️Detect spam issues
☑️Identify orphan pages
☑️Optimize user paths
☑️Control contextual relevance
☑️Keep an eye on the broken links
☑️Identify the low-value pages
Follow The Best Practices
The below-mentioned internal linking best practices not only ensures faster webpage crawling and indexing, but also helps you avoid major internal linking mistakes such as overoptimizing the internal link profile that might lead to diluted link equity and greater confusions among your site visitors.
☑️Aim for a recommended amount of internal links per page (not more than 100 links)
☑️Place the internal link within the content body, not just on the header, footer, or sidebar)
☑️Target the low-performing pages to boost their authority by linking them with the high-authoritative pages
Fix The Broken Links
Broken links (Links that redirect your visitors to pages that say 404 errors) can disrupt user experience on your site.
Not just that.
Broken links prevent the search engine from indexing your content properly, interrupt the seamless flow of link equity, and result in higher bounce rates that lead to frustrating, poor, and dead-end user navigation experiences.
One of the crucial purposes of an internal linking audit is to identify these broken links and fix them on time to boost SEO performance, prevent crawl budget waste, maintain site integrity, and ensure better user experience and site navigation. For faster identification of these broken links, we recommend using a few trusted broken internal links checker tools.
Find Redirect Chains & Fix Them
Redirect chains (e.g., A>B>C) slow down your site’s loading speed because search engines have a very limited time to crawl your site. The longer your link chains are, the more delayed your webpage crawling and indexing will be, leading to poor SEO performance and user experience.
Finding and fixing the redirect chains will help you optimize the crawl budget, preserve link equity, & boost your site’s technical efficiency. That is why it is one of the most crucial steps of the entire internal linking audit.
Identify & Fix Orphan Pages
The purpose of conducting a thorough internal link audit is to fix all the issues that might prevent the search engine crawlers from identifying and indexing your webpages.
But when you leave certain valuable webpages in your domain without any internal links vs. external links, they remain undiscovered by Google.
Without internal links, these pages fail to receive link juice from the most authoritative or high-performing pages in your domain, leading to poor site rankings.
Internally linking these orphan pages will ensure that all your website’s pages are discoverable by the search engine, resulting in higher rankings and improved online site visibility.
Analyze Link Depth
Internal link analysis/audit is a great way to make sure that your most crucial webpages are easily accessible by the search engine and the users to ensure faster crawling and improved user experience.
If your webpages are accessible within 3 to 4 clicks from the homepage, it indicates that those pages are visible to the search engine much faster, resulting in improved crawl efficiency, seamless link equity distribution, enhanced user experience, and increased time on site.
So, make sure you analyze the link depth and fix it once you’re done with your internal linking audit.
Optimize The Anchor Texts
Optimizing your anchor texts is crucial after you perform a link audit. Anchor text hints to the search engine about the context of the linked page’s topic.
A thorough internal link audit will help you identify the generic phrases and replace them with descriptive, long-tail, and keyword-rich anchor texts for improved user navigation and proper link equity distribution.
Add Relevant Contextual Links
Strategic placement of contextual links in your content enhances the page’s topical authority, ensures efficient PageRank distribution, and improves crawlability. That is why adding relevant contextual links to the most important pages in your domain is a must during an internal link audit.
Evaluate Your Link Placement
Your internal link audit is simply ineffective until you make sure that all your internal links are strategically placed within your webpages. The link placement directly influences your site’s SEO performance, link equity distribution, and user behavior.
When the right number of internal links is placed within the main content body, it also improves their Click-Through Rates and reduces bounce rates by guiding the visitors towards the desired action.
Establish A Structural Hierarchy
Without a proper internal link audit, your website is just a chaotic collection of webpages. Also, linking your webpages randomly will be of no good because it won’t help the search engine find any logical link between them.
Only when you strategically interlink the webpages, following a particular format or structural hierarchy (e.g., creating “pillar” & “cluster” pages and then internally linking the latter ones with the former one), does it act as a clear roadmap for Google to identify the most important and authoritative pages and the ones directly receiving the link equity, resulting faster crawling and indexing.
Find New Internal Linking Opportunities with Screaming Frog Internal Link Audit
Find New Internal Linking Opportunities with Screaming Frog Internal Link Audit
Screaming Frog is one of the most trusted tools when it comes to identifying the under-linked high-authority pages and orphan pages using the Internal tab.
Also, you can search for unlinked keyword mentions with its Custom Search and N-Grams features and explore new internal linking opportunities further.
Below are the steps mentioned:
✔️Navigate to Configuration on this tool
✔️Click on ‘Custom’
✔️Select ‘Search’
✔️Add a new search
✔️Set it to ‘Contains’
✔️Select “HTML”
✔️Enter the keyword/topic you want to build links for
✔️Run the crawl
✔️Check the “Custom Search” tab
You will find all the webpages in your domain that contain that keyword. Now, review them one by one to find pages for internal linking opportunities. Once you find the right spot, add the internal link to that page.
To Use The N-Grams Feature, You Need to
✔️Navigate to Configuration
✔️Select on “Content”
✔️Click on “Extraction”
✔️Enable the “Store HTML”
✔️Run website crawl
✔️Go to the “N-Grams” tab
✔️Filter for a specific phrase combination
✔️Identify the pages that are not currently linked
✔️Look for the popular anchor text phrases
✔️Add relevant links to other pages
Isn’t that simple?
However, performing an internal link audit alone is not enough until you fix the potential issues or identify the missing connections that link up your webpages.
Perform Link Gap Analysis for The Best Results
Internal link gap analysis helps you identify the missing connections between your webpages that will not only improve your site’s SEO but also enhance user navigation and ensure link equity distribution.
Our experts suggest using Screaming Frog and Google Search Console to perform link gap analysis.
Below are the steps mentioned
When Using Google Search Console:
➡️Log in to your account
➡️Select your website property
➡️Navigate to the Link Report in the left-hand menu
➡️Click on “Internal Links”
➡️Select “More”
Now you can see the detailed list of all the webpages sorted by the number of internal links they have. The pages with the maximum number of links usually appear at the top of the results.
To keep track of the pages with the least number of internal links or no link, export this data to a spreadsheet.
When Using Screaming Frog:
➡️Go to ‘Configuration’
➡️Click on ‘Custom’
➡️Select ‘Search’
➡️Click on ‘+Add’
➡️Enter the keyword/target topic
➡️Select “Page Text No Anchors” in the dropdown
➡️Run the crawl
…and you will find the anchor phrases that are not linked currently.
This is one of the best ways to internally link your webpages one by one, ensure proper PageRank distribution, and boost your site’s overall SEO health.
So, make sure that you start performing your internal link audit to stay ahead in the SEO game and ensure the best performance online.
That’s it for today.
We hope you enjoyed reading the blog.
Don’t forget to connect with our experts if you have any doubts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. How often to audit internal linking on a website?
Ans: For active sites, it’s generally recommended to perform monthly audits, especially if you publish or update content frequently. However, quarterly audits are the best way to keep an eye on the broken links, orphan pages, etc.
Our experts also suggest performing an internal link audit almost immediately after you redesign your website, update your content, or if your site undergoes a CMS update.
Q2. What is the best tool for internal linking analysis?
Ans: Some of the best tools for internal linking analysis include Link Whisper, LinkStorm, Internal Link Juicer, Yoast SEO Premium, WebCEO, etc.
Among all these, Link Whisper is considered the best one as this WordPress plugin offers AI-powered internal link suggestions in real-time and helps you improve the site structure by letting you find the orphan pages.
Q3. How to audit website internal linking like a pro?
Ans: The first step to perform an internal link audit is to find out and fix the technical issues by identifying the broken links, eliminating redirect chains, and fixing orphan pages.
Also, do not forget to monitor and fix crawl depth, use breadcrumb navigation internal links, optimize anchor texts, create topic clusters, and focus on inserting contextual links for improved crawlability.
Make sure you internally link the orphan pages with the high-authority ones and update your old content with the links to the newly published pages.
