Ahrefs Internal Links: Where to Find Them and How to Fix Common Issues

Ahrefs internal links are the hyperlinks connecting pages within the same website, and Ahrefs does track them, just not inside its main backlink reports.

That data sits in separate reports built for site structure rather than external authority, which is where most of the confusion starts.

What Counts as an Internal Link in Ahrefs

An internal link is any hyperlink that points from one page to another page on the same domain. A blog post linking to a related article, a category page linking to individual posts, a footer linking back to the homepage, all of these count.

Ahrefs records these connections when it crawls a site and uses them to map out how the site is organized. In practice, most site owners only start paying attention to their internal linking once a strong page stops gaining traction despite decent content.

Ahrefs Internal Links vs Backlinks

Ahrefs treats internal links and backlinks as two separate signals, and mixing the two up is one of the more common points of confusion for people newer to the platform.

Backlinks come from other websites and act as trust and authority signals. Internal links stay within one site and support structure and crawlability instead. Neither replaces the other, and

Ahrefs reports on them separately for that reason.

Feature	Backlinks	Internal Links
Source	External websites	Same website
SEO role	Authority and trust	Structure and crawlability
Where shown in Ahrefs	Backlink reports	Internal Backlinks report, Site Audit
Discovery method	Ahrefs' global web crawl	Global crawl plus site-specific crawl
Impact on rankings	Direct ranking signal	Supports discovery and relevance

Where Ahrefs Internal Links Data Actually Lives

Ahrefs internal links aren't hidden, but they are spread across a few different reports depending on what you're trying to see.

Site Explorer's Internal Backlinks Report

Inside Site Explorer, the Internal Backlinks report lists which pages on a site link to a specific page, along with the anchor text used and whether that link is still live. This is the report most people mean when they ask where internal links show up in Ahrefs.

Teams commonly report checking this view first when a page isn't performing and they suspect it simply isn't getting enough internal support from the rest of the site.

Site Audit's Internal Link Reports

Site Audit runs its own crawl of a website, separate from Ahrefs' regular web crawler, and it tends to catch more than Site Explorer does since it works through navigation, footers, and body content directly.

This is where orphan pages, broken internal links, and pages with too many or too few links usually surface. In practice, this report is the one most useful for a full-site cleanup rather than checking one page at a time.

Best by Links (Internal)

The Best by Links report can be filtered to show internal links only, which surfaces the pages receiving the most internal support across a site.

These are typically homepages, main category pages, and long-standing guides that other content naturally links back to.

How to Check Internal Links in Ahrefs

1. Log in to Ahrefs and open Site Explorer.
2. Enter either the full domain or one specific page URL, depending on whether you want a site-wide view or a single-page check.
3. Open the Internal Backlinks report once the data loads.
4. Review the source pages, target pages, and anchor text listed.
5. Run a Site Audit for a fuller picture, including orphan pages and broken links.
6. Cross-check the Site Audit findings against what Site Explorer shows, since the two draw from slightly different crawls.

How Ahrefs Discovers Internal Links

Ahrefs uses its own crawler to work through a website much the way a general-purpose web crawler is described to operate, according to Wikipedia.

It visits known URLs, scans the HTML for hyperlinks, records how pages connect to each other, and follows new links to find additional pages.

This happens continuously as Ahrefs recrawls sites, so the internal link counts shown in a report reflect the most recent crawl rather than the current live state of the site at every second.

Limitations Worth Knowing

• Pages blocked by robots.txt won't be crawled, so links on them won't be counted.
• Links generated through JavaScript are sometimes missed unless Ahrefs renders the script, which it can do but doesn't always catch instantly.
• Pages added recently, or buried deep in a site's structure, may not show up until the next crawl.

Common Internal Linking Issues Ahrefs Flags

Site Audit surfaces a handful of recurring problems, and most sites have at least one of these somewhere. What's often overlooked is that these issues tend to compound over time as a site grows and older content gets forgotten.

Internal linking is only one piece of a wider measurement habit though, since SEO professionals track a mix of metrics to judge overall performance, and keyword rankings remain one of the more commonly cited indicators, according to data from Statista.

• Orphan pages, meaning pages with no internal links pointing to them at all.
• Broken internal links, usually pointing to a deleted or moved page.
• Pages with too few internal links supporting them.
• Pages with an unusually high number of internal links, which can dilute their value.
• Internal links marked nofollow by mistake, which blocks them from passing authority.

Best Practices for Internal Linking Using Ahrefs Data

• Link to important pages from several relevant articles rather than just one.
• Use descriptive anchor text instead of generic phrases like "click here."
• Keep the site structure logical, with clear categories and subcategories.
• Avoid forcing links into content where they don't naturally fit.
• Review internal links on a regular schedule rather than only once.

A Common Misunderstanding About Ahrefs Internal Links

A frequent misconception is that Ahrefs counts internal links as backlinks somewhere in its totals. It doesn't. Backlink reports include only links from external websites, and internal links are recorded separately for that reason.

Industry practice generally treats this distinction as settled, though it's worth noting that Ahrefs hasn't published the exact internal weighting used in metrics like URL Rating, so anything beyond the confirmed reporting split is general understanding rather than documented fact.

Conclusion

Ahrefs internal links are tracked, just not inside the main backlink numbers. Site Explorer's Internal Backlinks report and Site Audit cover most of what's needed to review and fix a site's internal structure.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Ahrefs show internal links for every page?

Mostly, yes, as long as the page has been crawled. Newer or unindexed pages may not show internal link data right away, since Ahrefs needs to crawl a page before it can report on links pointing to it.

How often does Ahrefs update internal link data?

It depends on how often Ahrefs recrawls a given site. Larger or more frequently updated sites tend to get recrawled more often than smaller, static ones.

Can internal links affect URL Rating in Ahrefs?

They can contribute to how authority moves across a site, but URL Rating is mainly driven by backlinks. Internal links play a supporting role rather than the main one.

Why does my internal link count change between crawls?

This usually happens when pages are added, removed, or restructured, or simply when a new crawl picks up changes that weren't there before.

Can Ahrefs find orphan pages automatically?

Yes. Site Audit is built to detect pages that have no internal links pointing to them, which is one of its more commonly used checks.