Ahrefs Internal Links: How to Find, Audit, and Fix Them for SEO

Serena Bloom

July 6, 2026

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Ahrefs gives you two dedicated tools to manage internal links across your site — the Internal Backlinks report in Site Explorer and a set of internal link reports inside Site Audit. Together, they help you find broken links, fix orphan pages, spot nofollow issues, and uncover new linking opportunities.

What Are Internal Links and Why Do They Matter for SEO

Internal links are hyperlinks that connect one page on your site to another page on the same domain. Simple concept. But what they do underneath is worth understanding before touching any tool.

When Google crawls your site, it follows internal links to discover new pages. If a page has no internal links pointing to it, Google may never find it — or find it much later than you'd like. Beyond discovery, internal links pass PageRank between pages.

A page with more quality internal links pointing to it generally carries more authority in Google's eyes — a principle well documented in PageRank's foundational algorithm, which measures page importance based on the number and quality of links pointing to it.

Anchor text matters too. The clickable text in a link gives Google context about what the destination page covers. As noted in research on anchor text as a ranking signal, words contained in anchor text can directly influence how search engines rank the destination page. "Red running shoes" tells Google something specific. "Click here" tells it almost nothing.

What's often overlooked is how internal links influence sitelinks — those grouped sub-links that sometimes appear under a website in search results. Google generates sitelinks partly based on how well it understands your site's structure, which internal links directly shape.

What Happens When Pages Have No Internal Links

A page with no incoming internal links is called an orphan page. It can still rank if it has external backlinks or appears in your sitemap — but it receives zero PageRank from internal links. In practice, teams commonly find that orphan pages underperform compared to pages that are properly linked to, even when the content quality is similar.

In Ahrefs, URL Rating (UR) acts as a proxy for PageRank. Pages with higher UR scores tend to have stronger internal and external link profiles. Tracking UR across your key pages gives you a practical signal of how well your internal link equity is distributed.

The Two Ahrefs Tools That Handle Internal Links

Before jumping into workflows, it helps to know which tool does what. People often confuse Site Explorer and Site Audit — they serve different purposes for internal links.

Tool	Where to Find It	Scope	Best Used For
Internal Backlinks Report	Site Explorer	Single URL or domain	Analyzing links pointing to one specific page
Internal Link Opportunities	Site Audit	Entire site	Finding new linking opportunities in bulk
Orphan Pages Report	Site Audit → Links → Issues	Entire site	Pages with no incoming internal links
Internal Link Issues	Site Audit → All Issues	Entire site	Broken, nofollow, and redirect internal links

Site Explorer is your investigative tool — good for zooming in on a specific URL. Site Audit is your sitewide health check — better for fixing issues and finding opportunities at scale.

How to Use the Internal Backlinks Report in Ahrefs Site Explorer

Go to Site Explorer, enter your domain or a specific URL, then click "Internal backlinks" in the left sidebar. The report shows every internal link pointing to that target, along with the source URL, anchor text, HTTP status, and whether the link is dofollow or nofollow.

Here are three practical ways to use it.

Find and Fix Nofollow Internal Links

Apply the Nofollow filter in the report. Any internal link tagged nofollow blocks Google from passing equity through it — and in most cases, that's not intentional.

Review the results and remove the nofollow attribute on links where it doesn't belong. Keep nofollow only for pages you genuinely don't want crawled or indexed — login pages, admin sections, duplicate filter pages.

Find Broken or Redirected Internal Link Targets

Apply the "Target HTTP code" filter and select 404 (broken) or 3XX (redirect). This surfaces internal links pointing to pages that no longer exist or have moved — without needing to run a full crawl.

For 404s: either update the link to point to the correct URL, remove it, or set up a 301 redirect if the page had value. For redirect chains: update the link to point directly to the final destination URL. Redirect chains slow crawling and dilute equity unnecessarily.

Check if a Page Ranks Because of Internal Links

Look for pages in your organic results that rank well but have few or no referring domains. Then check their Internal Backlinks report. If several internal pages with their own backlinks are pointing to that page, internal linking is likely doing a lot of the heavy lifting.

This is useful pattern recognition. If it works for one page, you can replicate the approach for others you want to push up.

How to Audit Internal Links Using Ahrefs Site Audit

Site Audit crawls your entire site and surfaces internal link issues across all pages. You can schedule crawls daily, weekly, or monthly — which matters more than people realise. Internal link problems accumulate quietly. A one-time audit is not enough.

Fix Broken Internal Links (4XX Pages)

Path: Internal Pages report → Issues tab → 4XX page

Broken internal links point to pages that return a 404 or similar error. Every broken link is a dead end for both users and crawlers — and it means any authority that would have passed through that link is lost.

Before you delete a broken link or just remove it from the page, check whether the 404 page has external backlinks pointing to it. You can do this in Site Explorer → Broken Backlinks report. If it does, a 301 redirect to a relevant live page is usually the better move.

Fix Orphan Pages

Path: Links report → Issues tab → Orphan page (has no incoming internal links)

Orphan pages receive no internal PageRank and are harder for Google to find. Not every orphan is a problem — some low-priority pages are intentionally isolated. But important pages should never be orphaned.

Use this prioritisation framework to decide where to act first:

Priority	Condition	Recommended Action
High	Orphan page already has organic traffic	Add internal links immediately
High	Orphan page is a core product or service page	Add internal links immediately
Medium	Orphan page has backlinks but low traffic	Add internal links and review content quality
Low	Orphan page has no traffic and no backlinks	Evaluate whether the page should exist at all

Fix Nofollow Internal Links at Scale

Path: All Issues report → "Page has nofollow outgoing internal links"

Site Audit flags this automatically. Review each flagged page and remove the nofollow attribute on links where it's not serving a purpose. This is a quick win most sites sit on for too long.

Find New Internal Link Opportunities

Path: Internal Link Opportunities report in Site Audit

This report analyses the top traffic-driving keywords for each crawled page and suggests where you could add new internal links across your site. What makes it genuinely useful is that it doesn't just tell you which pages to link together — it shows the exact passage of text where the link should go.

Prioritise suggestions that point toward your most important pages — key product pages, pillar content, or pages you're actively trying to rank.

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How to Build a Strong Internal Link Structure

The tool workflows above fix existing problems. But if your site's internal link structure is poorly planned, you'll keep creating new problems to fix. A few structural principles help avoid that.

Plan a Pyramid Site Structure

Think of your site as a hierarchy: homepage at the top, category or pillar pages in the middle, individual posts or product pages at the bottom. Internal links should generally flow top-down, with the homepage linking to key sections and those sections linking to their sub-pages.

The practical goal is that every important page should be reachable within three clicks from the homepage. Pages buried deeper than that tend to receive less crawl attention and carry lower internal authority.

Use Topic Clusters Instead of Strict Silos

A topic cluster groups a pillar page with a set of related sub-pages, all linked to and from each other. It's different from a strict silo, where sections of a site are kept deliberately separate. Silos discourage cross-linking, which means you miss opportunities to pass authority between related topics.

In practice, most well-performing sites today combine clean URL structure (like /seo/keyword-research/) with flexible cluster-based linking that doesn't artificially wall off sections from each other.

Link From Power Pages to New or Weak Content

Your power pages are the ones with the most external backlinks. Find them in Site Explorer by sorting your pages by Referring Domains. These pages carry the most internal authority — and linking from them to newer or underperforming pages is one of the most effective things you can do to move rankings.

In Site Audit's Page Explorer, you can search by keyword and sort results by organic traffic to find high-authority pages that are topically relevant to the page you want to boost.

Get Pagination Right

Paginated pages — category archives, product listings, multi-page articles — are a form of internal linking that's easy to break.

Two rules: use real HTML anchor links for pagination controls, not JavaScript buttons (crawlers often can't follow JS-based navigation). And don't canonicalize page 2, 3, or 4 back to page 1 — those pages contain different content, and canonicalizing them as duplicates can get that content de-indexed.

Internal Linking Best Practices — Quick Reference

Best Practice	Why It Matters	Where to Action in Ahrefs
Use descriptive anchor text	Helps Google understand what the linked page is about	Outgoing Anchors report in Site Explorer
Place key links in the content body	Body links carry more value than footer or nav links	Manual review
Keep internal links dofollow by default	Ensures PageRank flows freely between pages	Site Audit → All Issues
Aim for 3–5 contextual links per article	Prevents PageRank dilution across too many outgoing links	Manual review
Fix broken internal links regularly	Reclaims lost authority and removes dead ends	Site Audit → Internal Pages → Issues
Fix orphan pages	Ensures all important pages receive internal link equity	Site Audit → Links → Issues
Link from power pages to new content	Channels authority toward pages that need it most	Site Explorer → Best by Links
Schedule regular audits	Catches new issues before they affect rankings	Site Audit (scheduled crawls)

On anchor text specifically: vary it. Linking to the same page with identical anchor text every time looks unnatural. Use different but related phrases — they can cover different keyword angles while pointing to the same destination.

On link quantity: every outgoing link on a page shares the available PageRank. A page with 100 links passes roughly 1/100th of its equity through each one. That doesn't mean fewer links is always better — but it does mean excessive linking has a real cost.

Conclusion

Ahrefs internal links management comes down to two tools used consistently — Site Explorer for page-level investigation and Site Audit for sitewide fixes and opportunities. Run audits on a schedule, fix broken links and orphan pages first, then layer in new opportunities.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Internal Backlinks report in Ahrefs?

It's a report in Site Explorer showing all internal links pointing to a specific URL or domain. It displays source pages, anchor text, HTTP status, and dofollow or nofollow attributes. No full site crawl needed to access it.

What is the difference between Site Explorer and Site Audit for internal links?

Site Explorer shows internal links for a specific URL or domain. Site Audit crawls your entire site and surfaces sitewide issues — broken links, orphan pages, nofollow links, and linking opportunities — across all pages at once.

How do I find orphan pages in Ahrefs?

Run a Site Audit crawl, go to the Links report, click the Issues tab, and look for "Orphan page (has no incoming internal links)." Sort by organic traffic to prioritise which pages to fix first.

Does Ahrefs find internal link opportunities automatically?

Yes. The Internal Link Opportunities report in Site Audit suggests which pages to connect based on their top keywords. It also shows the exact passage of text where the link should be added.

Do nofollow internal links pass PageRank?

No. Nofollow internal links block both crawling and PageRank transfer. Use Site Audit's All Issues report to find them and remove the nofollow attribute where it isn't intentional.