Internal links are the one ranking signal a site controls completely. They decide which pages Googlebot finds, how often it comes back to them, how much of the site’s authority reaches each one, and — through the anchor text — what each page is understood to be about. The checker above reads one page and reports every internal link on it with its anchor, its placement, its rel and whether the target still answers.

What the checker reports

• Internal vs external. Same domain (www or not) counts as internal. A different subdomain counts as external, because Google may treat it as a separate site.
• Where each link sits. Navigation, header, footer, sidebar or the content itself. The nav and footer repeat on every page; the content links are the ones specific to this page, and the ones that carry relevance.
• Anchor text quality. “Click here”, “read more”, “learn more” and an image with no alt text are flagged. The anchor is the label Google attaches to the target page.
• rel="nofollow" on internal links, which tells Google not to pass signals to your own page.
• HTTP status of every unique target — broken (4xx, 5xx, no answer) and redirected, with the URL the redirect lands on.
• Mixed protocol: http:// links on an https page, and a canonical that points somewhere else.

The five fixes, in order of effect

1. Repair broken internal links. Every one is a dead end for a visitor and a wasted request for Googlebot, and the page behind it silently loses a link. Point it at the live page or remove it.
2. Update links that redirect. A link to an old URL works, at the cost of a round trip per click and per crawl. Change the href to the final URL — the table shows it. The redirect checker traces any single chain.
3. Rewrite generic anchors. “Learn more” tells Google nothing. “Pricing for teams” tells it what the target is about — and it is the same words a person would search for.
4. Link from the body, not just the chrome. A page whose only internal links are the shared navigation is, to Google, a page related to nothing in particular. Three or more links from the content to related pages, with descriptive anchors, is the pattern that ranks.
5. Drop nofollow on your own links. It does not save crawl budget and it does starve the target. Keep it for untrusted external links.

Anchor text, without overdoing it

The anchor should describe the target page in natural words — usually its title or its subject. Using the exact target keyword in every link to a page reads as manipulation and is unnecessary; vary it the way a writer would, and let the page’s own title do the rest. What to avoid is the other extreme: a bare URL, a generic verb, or an icon with no label.

Orphan pages and depth

This checker reads one page. Two site-level problems it cannot see from there: orphan pages, which no internal link reaches at all, and deep pages, more than three clicks from the homepage. The fastest way to find orphans is to compare the sitemap with the pages actually linked — the robots.txt & sitemap checker reads the sitemap side. For depth, check the pages you care about from the homepage and count the clicks; anything past three needs a link from somewhere closer to the top.

Frequently asked

How many internal links should a page have?

As many as are useful and no more. Google reads hundreds; the value each passes shrinks with the count, and a page with 400 links is mostly navigation. The checker warns above 300.

Do links in the footer count?

They are crawled and they pass signals, but Google weighs links in the main content more than boilerplate. A footer link keeps a page reachable; a content link makes it relevant.

Should internal links open in a new tab?

No. New tabs are for leaving the site. Internal navigation in the same tab keeps the back button working and the visitor oriented.

Why does the checker say a page is broken when it opens for me?

Some hosts refuse HEAD requests or unknown user agents. The checker retries with GET when HEAD is refused; a page that answers 403 to every automated client shows here as 403, and that is worth knowing too — Googlebot is an automated client.