Free internal link checker

Internal link checker

Check every internal link on your site: what is broken, what is orphaned, and what is missing.

Free. No sign-up. Up to 40 pages, about two minutes.

How the internal link checker works

Six stages, streamed to your screen as they happen.

  1. 1

    Crawl

    We read your sitemap and fetch up to 40 pages.

  2. 2

    Clean text

    Each page is reduced to its content, with nav, header and footer stripped away.

  3. 3

    Collect links

    Every link inside the content is recorded with its anchor text.

  4. 4

    Check

    Each link is fetched: broken ones, dead ends and redirects are reported with the pages that carry them.

  5. 5

    Map

    Pages and links become a map you can pan and zoom, with orphan pages ringed in red.

  6. 6

    Suggest

    One new link for every page nothing points at yet, down to the sentence and the anchor text.

What the internal link checker checks

The full internal link audit, run for you in about two minutes.

Broken links

  • links that answer 404 or an error
  • links to pages that never answer
  • the pages carrying each dead link, with the anchor text

Redirects

  • internal links pointing at a redirect
  • where each one actually lands
  • so you can point them at the final URL

Structure

  • orphan pages nobody links to
  • pages that hoard inbound links
  • pages that link out to nothing

Missing links

  • which page should link to which
  • the sentence where the link belongs
  • the anchor phrase inside that sentence
  • one suggestion per page, so links spread instead of piling up
  • how well the two pages fit, as a percentage

Kept out

  • nav and footer links, counted but never judged
  • privacy, terms and other legal pages as targets
  • login, cart and dashboard routes

Output

  • a link map you can click through
  • suggestions grouped by page to edit or page to link to
  • every suggestion copied as plain text for your editor

Why check your internal links

Internal links are how search engines find your pages and how they decide which ones matter. When a link dies, the page behind it loses the only route to itself. When a link is never written, the page never earns that route at all.

Both problems are invisible from your own site. Nothing on the page tells you that the link in paragraph three now answers 404, or that fifty older posts should point at the page you published last week. That is what this internal link checker is for.

Broken internal links

Every link inside your content is fetched. Any that answers with an error, or never answers, is listed with the pages that carry it and the words it is written on, so you can find it in the editor without searching.

Redirected internal links

A link pointing at a redirect still works, but it wastes a hop and muddies the signal. The checker shows you where each one actually lands so you can point it straight at the final URL.

Orphan pages

A page nobody links to gets crawled late and ranked low, however good it is. The checker rings these pages in red and looks hardest for a page that could adopt them.

Missing links

The part most link checkers skip. For each page, the checker finds the pages it talks about but does not link to, then names the sentence where the link belongs and the words to turn into the link.

Every page gets one link pointing at it, and no more. A page with a contextual link already pointing at it is reachable, so a second link repeats the message. The suggestions go to the pages that still have none, which is where the gain is.

Anchor text

The words you link should describe the destination. Click here wastes the link. The checker reads the anchor text of every existing link and suggests the target page’s own words for every new one.

Internal link checker vs broken link checker

A broken link checker tells you what is dead. An internal link checker goes further: which pages are unreachable, which links leak through redirects, and which links should exist but do not. This tool does all three in one run.

When to run it

After every publish, after a redesign, and after any URL change. New pages start as orphans and old links start dying the moment you move a page. If you would rather not think about it, Bottally writes your articles and links them into the pages you already have. Pair this with the free website audit for the rest of your on-page SEO.

Internal link checker FAQ

A tool that crawls your site and reports the state of every link from one of your pages to another. This one also finds the links you should add.

Enter your address above. The internal link checker reads your sitemap, crawls your pages, and reports broken links, redirects, orphan pages and missing links.

Yes. Every link inside your content is fetched, and any that answers 404, errors, or never answers is listed with the pages that carry it.

Yes, and there is no account or email. Up to 40 pages per run.

A page no other page links to from its content. Search engines find it late or not at all, so the checker rings it in red.

It maps them, but judges your site on links inside the content. A footer link to every page tells search engines nothing about relevance.

An internal link pointing at a redirect wastes a hop and can leak authority. Point it at the final URL instead.

Three to ten contextual links out is normal. Pointing in, one good link is what a page needs to be found, which is why this checker never suggests a second one.

A page that already has a contextual link pointing at it is reachable. Repeating the link adds nothing, so the checker spends its suggestions on the pages that still have none.

No. The run streams to your browser and nothing is saved.
Free Internal Link Checker: Broken Links, Orphans & Gaps