INTERNAL LINKING / SITE STRUCTURE
How to audit your
internal links.
Internal links help people move through a site and help crawlers discover how pages relate. A useful audit finds broken links, important pages with few paths in and places where clearer connections would improve the experience.
1. Start with the pages that matter
List the services, categories, guides and landing pages that support your main customer journeys. Include the pages you want users to find, not only URLs that currently receive traffic. This gives the audit a purpose and helps focus improvements.
2. Crawl the site and review discovered URLs
Use a crawler configured for your website and compare the discovered URL set with your sitemap and important page list. Check response codes, crawl depth, canonical URLs and internal inlinks. A crawler only reports what it can access from its starting points and settings, so combine the export with Search Console, analytics and your own site map where available.
3. Find orphan and weakly linked pages
Compare known valuable URLs against the crawled pages and identify pages that have no internal links or are several clicks away from relevant sections. A sitemap listing does not replace contextual internal links. Add a link only where it helps the reader understand what to do next.
4. Fix broken or misleading link paths
Review links returning errors, redirecting through unnecessary hops or pointing to irrelevant destinations. Update the source link to the final, useful page where possible. Check navigation menus, breadcrumbs, category pages and older articles, not only recently published content.
5. Improve contextual connections
Link related pages together using concise, descriptive anchor text. Connect a topic guide to its relevant service, and connect the service to useful evidence and resources. Avoid repeated exact-match anchors in every paragraph; the link should read naturally and set the right expectation.
For example, this guide links to Drip Ranks' SEO audit and technical SEO pages because those are relevant next steps for readers. A service page can also link to a related case study.
6. Re-crawl and track your changes
After implementing changes, crawl again to validate links and compare important page inlinks and depth. Record the change and review discovery and performance over time. Do not assume every internal link change will cause a ranking improvement; assess the complete experience and site context.
Use our free SEO checklist to review related technical foundations. If site architecture or indexation is complex, a focused technical SEO audit can help prioritise implementation.