How to Find the Internal Links to a Page (3 Methods)

Did you change a page URL and want to update your internal links?

Or you need the list of internal links to a page so you can optimize your anchor texts.

Either way, we’ve got you covered. In this article, you’ll find 3 tools that allow you to easily find internal links to a page.

1. Screaming Frog

Screaming Frog is one of the best SEO tools out there. And it’s free to use for up to 500 URLs. If your website has more than 500 pages, the tool is well worth the price if you actively do SEO.

Here are the steps:

Step 1: Crawl your entire website.

Enter your homepage full URL and click “Start”.

Screaming Frog crawl

Step 2: Search for your URL and/or select it in the Address column.

Search the URL for which you need the internal links in the Search box.

Step 3: Go to the Inlinks tab at the bottom.

The Inlinks is the second tab in the bottom section of the app.

Screaming Frog internal links

Your internal links are all listed there. Here are the important columns and what they mean:

  • From: The page on which the link is
  • To: The internal link page you selected
  • Anchor text: The text used to link to the page
  • Alt text: If the link is from an image, the alternative text of the image
  • Link Path: The link position in the HTML
  • Link Position: The link position in the page, which is useful to quickly detect links in menus vs. content

Step 4: Export the internal links (optional)

If you’re dealing with a large number of internal links. It is best to export and open with Excel or Google Sheets where you can sort and filter the data.

2. Xenu’s Link Sleuth

Those who have been doing SEO for a long time will have heard of Xenu. It’s an old-school tool that still works today. It’s not nearly as good as Screaming Frog, but it has the advantage of being completely free.

It’s a Windows software, but you can make it work on a Mac with a tool like Crossover.

Step 1: Crawl your entire website.

Click on “File” and “Check URL…”, enter your homepage URL, and uncheck “Check external links”.

Xenu site crawl

Click on “More options” and check “Treat redirection as errors”

Xenu crawl options

Click “OK” twice to run the crawl.

Step 2: Select the URL and click the “URL properties” icon.

Click on “View and select “Show broken links only”.

Xenu view menu

Then, select the URL from the list for which you need the internal links and click on the “URL Properties” icon.

Xenu internal links in URL properties

3. Search Console

Search Console has an internal links report under “Links” and “Internal Links” on the right side. Unfortunately, the data is incomplete so it’s not the best option to identify internal links.

In addition, it doesn’t report image links and links in the header section (e.g. canonical links).

Search Console links
Search Console internal links report

Common internal links optimizations for SEO

Internal links maintenance and optimization should be performed for any site that takes SEO seriously.

Optimized internal links provide a better user experience and can results in significantly more search traffic over time.

Here are 3 types of internal links optimization:

  1. Internal links that return a 404: These are the most important to fix. You should update to the correct URL or remove the links if the page no longer exists.
  2. Internal links that 301 redirects: While less urgent than 404s, internal links that go through 301 redirects slow down crawling and can negatively affect your SEO when they accumulate.
  3. Topical and anchor text optimization: As you publish more content, opportunities arise to interlink your content in beneficial ways for SEO and users. 

These tasks should be done every month, if not every week for active websites.