What internal links are and why you might want to find them
An internal link is a hyperlink that points from one page on a website to another page on the same website. When you click a link that takes you from a blog post to the site's homepage, or from one product page to another product page, you are following an internal link. External links point to different websites entirely.
You might want to find internal links to understand how a website is organized, to see what pages the site owner considers important enough to link to, or to check whether a page you are interested in is connected to the rest of the site. If you are building your own website, finding internal links on other sites can show you how professionals structure their navigation.
Key Takeaways
- You can see internal links by right-clicking any link on a page and checking where it points, or by hovering over it to see the URL in your browser's status bar.
- Browser developer tools let you view all links on a page at once, organized by where they point, without clicking each one individually.
- Free online tools like Screaming Frog and Ahrefs Backlink Checker show internal link structure across an entire website, not just one page.
- The simplest method for a single page is to use your browser's Find function to search for the word "href" and read the URLs that appear.
Checking links one at a time in your browser
The most straightforward way to find where a single link goes is to hover your mouse over it without clicking. Most browsers display the destination URL in a small box at the bottom left of the window, or in the status bar. This tells you immediately whether the link stays on the same site or goes elsewhere.
If you want to be certain, right-click the link and select "Copy link address" (the exact wording varies by browser). Paste the URL into a text document or your address bar. If the URL starts with the same domain name as the page you are on — for example, if you are on example.com and the link points to example.com/about — then it is an internal link.
Using your browser's developer tools to see all links at once
Every modern browser includes developer tools that let you inspect the code behind a webpage. To open them, right-click anywhere on the page and select "Inspect" or "Inspect Element". A panel will open showing the HTML code.
Press Ctrl+F (or Cmd+F on Mac) to open the search box within the developer tools. Type href= to find every link on the page. The browser will highlight each one and show you the destination URL. Scan through the results to identify which ones point to pages on the same domain. This method works on any website and requires no additional software.
If you want a cleaner view, some browsers let you filter by link type. In Firefox, open the Inspector, then click the "Inspector" tab and use the search to find all a tags (the HTML element that creates links). In Chrome, the same approach works — search for "a href" to see only the actual link elements without the surrounding code.
Viewing the page source to find all links
Right-click on any webpage and select "View Page Source" (or "View Source"). This opens the raw HTML code in a new tab. Press Ctrl+F or Cmd+F and search for href=" to jump to each link on the page.
This method shows you every link in the order it appears in the code, including links you might not see on the page itself — such as links in navigation menus that are hidden until you hover over them, or links in the footer. You will see the full URL for each link, making it easy to spot which ones point to the same domain.
Using free online tools to map internal links across a whole site
Screaming Frog is a free desktop tool that crawls a website and creates a map of all internal links. Download it, enter a domain name, and it will scan the site and show you every page and how they connect to each other. The free version has limits on how many pages it can scan, but it works well for smaller sites or to get a sense of how a large site is structured.
Ahrefs Backlink Checker is a free online tool that shows internal links pointing to a specific page. Enter a URL and it displays all the pages on that domain that link to it. This is useful if you want to understand which pages the site owner considers important enough to link to from multiple places.
Google Search Console, if you have access to a site's account, shows internal link data under the "Links" section. This requires you to own or have permission to manage the website, so it is not useful for analyzing other people's sites, but it is the most accurate method if you are working on your own website.
Understanding what you find
Once you have located the internal links, you can analyze what they tell you. If a page has many internal links pointing to it, the site owner considers it important. If a page has no internal links, it may be orphaned — not connected to the rest of the site — which can make it harder for visitors to find.
Look at the anchor text, which is the visible words you click on. If the anchor text says "Learn More" or "Click Here", the link is not descriptive. If it says "How to reset your password" or "Product comparison", the link tells you what you will find. Well-written internal links help both visitors and search engines understand what a page is about.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I see internal links on a website I do not own?
Yes. Internal links are part of the public HTML code that your browser downloads when you visit a page. You can inspect them using developer tools, view the page source, or use free online crawlers. The site owner cannot hide internal links from you.
What is the difference between an internal link and a navigation menu?
A navigation menu is a collection of internal links, usually grouped together at the top or side of a page. Every link in a navigation menu is an internal link, but not every internal link is in the navigation menu — some appear in the body text or footer.
Why would a page have no internal links pointing to it?
A page with no internal links is called an orphaned page. This can happen by accident when a page is created but never linked from anywhere else, or intentionally when a site owner wants a page to be private or hidden from navigation. Orphaned pages are harder for visitors to discover.
Do internal links affect how search engines rank a website?
Yes, internal links help search engines understand which pages on a site are most important and how pages relate to each other. A page with many internal links pointing to it is often treated as more important than a page with few or no links. This is one reason site owners pay attention to their internal link structure.
Can I use these methods on websites that require a login?
Yes, if you are logged in. Developer tools and page source viewing work on any page your browser can display. If a page is behind a login, you will need to log in first, then use these methods to inspect the links on that page.