Ahrefs internal links data is tracked separately from backlinks and surfaces across three distinct reports: Internal Backlinks in Site Explorer, the Internal Links report in Site Audit, and the Link Opportunities tool. Knowing which report to use for which task is where most users get stuck.
What Are Internal Links in Ahrefs?
Internal links are hyperlinks that connect one page to another within the same website. A link from your homepage to a blog post is internal. A link from an outside website to that same post is a backlink.
According to Wikipedia, internal links are also commonly used by web crawlers to index a website for a search engine which is a core reason they matter for SEO beyond just navigation.
Ahrefs treats these as two separate categories by design. Backlinks signal authority from external sources. Internal links signal how your own pages connect to each other. Mixing them up leads to misreading your reports.
Backlink metrics like Domain Rating, total backlinks, and referring domains reflect only external signals. Internal links do not factor into those numbers. They appear in their own dedicated reports.
In practice, SEO teams commonly report spending months inside Ahrefs focused entirely on backlink data before noticing the internal link reports exist at all. It is an easy gap to miss, and one that can limit ranking potential on otherwise strong content.
Where to Find Ahrefs Internal Links Data
There are three reports that matter. Each serves a distinct purpose. Using the wrong one for a given task often means working with incomplete data.
Internal Backlinks Report in Site Explorer
This is the right starting point when you want to check internal link support for one specific page.
Open Site Explorer, enter a URL, then look for "Internal Backlinks" in the left sidebar under the Links section.
The report shows every page on your site that links to the URL you entered, with the source page, anchor text, and link type visible for each entry.
This report is most useful when a page is underperforming. Checking its internal backlinks tells you exactly how much internal support it is receiving from the rest of your site.
SEO practitioners commonly find that pages with only one or two internal links pointing to them are underperforming not because of content quality but because the rest of the site is not connecting to them at all.
Internal Links Report in Site Audit
Site Audit crawls your website directly, which means it typically finds more internal links than Site Explorer does.
Site Explorer relies on Ahrefs' general web crawler. Site Audit runs a focused crawl of your domain on demand.
After running a crawl, navigate to the "Links" section inside your Site Audit results. The internal links report there gives you a site-wide view: which pages send links, which receive them, and where structural problems exist.
This is the better report for a full-site internal link audit. Site Explorer is best for single-page checks. Site Audit is best for evaluating your entire domain at once.
Best by Links, Filtered to Internal
In Site Explorer, the "Best by Links" report normally ranks your pages by the number of external backlinks they have. Filtering it to show internal links instead gives you a ranked list of which pages receive the most internal links across your site.
Your homepage almost always leads this list. What is worth checking is whether your most commercially important pages, not just navigational pages, are receiving proportional internal support.
Which Ahrefs Internal Links Report to Use
|
Task |
Report to Use |
|
Check internal links pointing to one specific page |
Internal Backlinks, Site Explorer |
|
Find orphan pages and site-wide structural issues |
Site Audit, Internal Links report |
|
See which pages receive the most internal links |
Best by Links, filtered to Internal |
|
Find pages where new internal links should be added |
Site Audit, Link Opportunities |
How to Check Internal Links for a Specific Page
Using Ahrefs Site Explorer
Step 1. Log in to Ahrefs and open Site Explorer from the top navigation bar.
Step 2. Enter the full URL of the page you want to check. Entering a specific page URL rather than your root domain focuses the results on that one page.
Step 3. In the left sidebar, scroll to the Links section and click "Internal Backlinks."
Step 4. Review the results. The source column shows which pages link to your URL. The anchor column shows the text used. The type column shows whether each link passes equity or carries a nofollow attribute.
Step 5. If a page that should carry weight on your site has only one or two internal links, flag it. That is often a fast opportunity to improve its ranking position without any external link building work.
Using Site Audit for a Full Site Review
Step 1. Go to Site Audit in Ahrefs and run a crawl of your website. Ahrefs will prompt you for your domain and crawl configuration.
Step 2. Once the crawl completes, go to the Links section in your audit results.
Step 3. Filter by pages with zero inbound internal links to find orphan pages, by HTTP 404 status to find broken internal links, and by low inbound link count to find underlinked pages.
These three filters catch most of the structural issues worth addressing.
How to Use the Ahrefs Internal Links Opportunities Report
The Link Opportunities report sits inside Site Audit. It is one of the more actionable features Ahrefs offers for internal linking, and it is frequently underused.
What the Report Shows
Ahrefs scans your pages for keyword mentions. When it finds a page that mentions a keyword another page on your site is actively targeting, it flags the gap as an opportunity.
The suggestion means: this page already references the topic, and you could link that reference to the relevant target page.
Each suggestion shows a source page, a target page, and the keyword or phrase that triggered the match. If your article on email marketing mentions "landing page optimisation" several times but does not link to your guide on that topic, Ahrefs will surface that connection as a suggestion.
How to Prioritise Which Opportunities to Act On
Not all suggestions carry equal value. A practical approach:
Start with target pages that rank between positions 5 and 15 for their main keyword. These pages are close to moving up and tend to respond well to added internal link equity.
Next, look at where each suggestion is coming from. A link sourced from one of your highest-traffic pages will pass more value than the same suggestion sourced from a page with little traffic or weak internal authority.
Only add links where the context fits the surrounding content naturally. Implementing every suggestion without reading the source text often results in links that feel forced and interrupt the reader.
Common Internal Linking Problems Ahrefs Identifies
Orphan Pages
An orphan page receives no internal links from anywhere on your site. Because crawlers primarily follow links to discover and revisit pages, an orphan page is harder to find and less likely to be crawled on a regular basis.
Site Audit identifies orphan pages automatically. Finding a page with strong content but zero internal links pointing to it is often one of the fastest fixes available in an internal linking audit.
Broken Internal Links
A broken internal link points to a page that no longer exists, usually returning a 404 error. Each broken link wastes crawl budget and prevents link equity from reaching its intended destination.
In Site Audit, filtering internal links by HTTP status code and selecting 404 shows exactly which pages are routing traffic and equity into dead ends.
Pages With Too Few Internal Links
A page can be indexed, technically sound, and contain good content while still being underlinked. If an important page on your site receives only one or two internal links from the rest of your domain, it is not receiving proportional internal authority.
As reported by TechCrunch, growing organic traffic through SEO requires both strong content and the structural signals that help search engines understand which pages matter most on a site.
What is often overlooked is that this is fixable without any external link building. Adding several contextual internal links from relevant, already-published content can improve how search engines assess a page's importance within your site structure.
Too Many Outgoing Links on One Page
Sending a very high number of internal links from a single page dilutes the equity each link passes.
There is no fixed rule on exact numbers, but in practice, pages with hundreds of body-level internal links tend to distribute less individual value per link compared to pages with a focused, contextual selection.
Do Ahrefs Backlink Reports Count Internal Links?
No. The main backlink metrics in Ahrefs, including total backlinks, referring domains, and Domain Rating, count only links from external websites. Internal links are excluded from these figures entirely.
This separation is intentional. External backlinks and internal links serve different analytical purposes, and combining them into one metric would make both harder to interpret accurately.
|
Link Type |
Included in Backlink Reports? |
Where It Appears in Ahrefs |
|
External backlinks |
Yes |
Backlinks report, Site Explorer |
|
Internal links |
No |
Internal Backlinks, Site Audit, Best by Links |
SEO professionals who are new to Ahrefs often misread their backlink totals as a combined count.
In practice, the number you see in the main backlinks report reflects only external links, and internal link data requires a separate lookup.
Limitations to Know When Using Ahrefs for Internal Links
Ahrefs does not always capture every internal link your site contains. Several factors affect what the tool can and cannot see.
Pages blocked in your robots.txt file will not be crawled, so internal links on those pages will not appear in reports.
Links that load only through JavaScript may not be fully picked up by the global crawler, though Site Audit handles JavaScript rendering better than Site Explorer's crawler does.
Internal link counts in Ahrefs may differ from what Googlebot sees. Crawl frequency is also a factor. Links added recently may not appear in your Ahrefs data for several days, depending on when the next crawl runs.
For the most accurate internal link picture, run Site Audit rather than relying solely on Site Explorer. Site Audit performs a direct crawl of your domain on demand. Site Explorer reflects the broader Ahrefs web crawl, which may not have visited your site as recently.
Teams running regular site audits commonly report that their Site Audit data is noticeably more current and complete than what Site Explorer shows for the same pages.
Conclusion
Ahrefs separates internal link data from backlink data across three reports. Use Site Explorer's Internal Backlinks for single-page checks, Site Audit for full-site analysis, and Link Opportunities to find gaps.
Each serves a specific function and should not be used interchangeably.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do internal links count as backlinks in Ahrefs?
No. Ahrefs tracks internal links and backlinks separately. Backlink reports show only external links. Internal links appear in dedicated reports inside Site Explorer and Site Audit and are not included in Domain Rating or referring domain counts.
How do I find all internal links pointing to a page in Ahrefs?
Open Site Explorer, enter the page URL, and go to Internal Backlinks in the left sidebar. The report lists every page on your site linking to that URL, along with the anchor text and link type for each entry.
What is the Link Opportunities report in Ahrefs?
A feature inside Site Audit that identifies pages where a keyword is mentioned but no internal link to the relevant target page exists yet. It helps surface internal linking gaps across your site without manual page-by-page review.
Can Ahrefs find orphan pages?
Yes. Run a Site Audit and filter the Internal Links report for pages with zero inbound internal links. Ahrefs will list all orphan pages discovered during the crawl.
How often does Ahrefs update internal link data?
Site Audit data updates when you run a new crawl manually. Site Explorer data updates based on Ahrefs' own crawl schedule, which varies by site size and how frequently the site is revisited.
