Ahrefs internal links are the hyperlinks connecting pages within the same website, and Ahrefs tracks them, just not inside its main backlink reports.
You'll find this data in Site Explorer and Site Audit instead, kept separate from external link metrics.
What Ahrefs Internal Links Actually Are
An internal link is any hyperlink that points from one page on a domain to another page on that same domain. A blog post linking to a related article, a category page linking out to individual posts, a homepage linking to a services page. All of it counts.
Ahrefs records these links whenever its crawler passes through a site. In practice, most site owners only notice this data when they're troubleshooting something, a page that isn't ranking despite decent content, or a section of the site that seems to be getting ignored by search engines.
That's usually when the internal link reports become useful rather than theoretical. Most of this attention is aimed at Google specifically, since data from Statista shows Google handles the large majority of global search traffic, which is why internal linking advice tends to focus on how Google's crawlers and ranking systems read a site's structure.
How Ahrefs Internal Links Differ From Backlinks
Backlinks come from other websites. Internal links stay within one domain. Ahrefs treats these as two separate signals because they do different jobs: backlinks tend to signal outside trust and authority, while internal links help search engines (and readers) understand how a site is organized.
This is where a fair amount of confusion sets in. Someone checks their "Backlinks" report, sees a number, and assumes it includes every link pointing at a page, internal or external.
It doesn't. Ahrefs excludes internal links from that main backlink count, along with referring domains and anchor text reports built around external sources.
Where Ahrefs Internal Links Show Up in Reports
Ahrefs internal links appear in a handful of specific places, not one master list.
Site Explorer's Internal Backlinks Report
Inside Site Explorer, there's a dedicated Internal Backlinks report. Enter a domain or a single URL, and it shows which pages on that site link to the one you're checking.
Each row typically includes the source page, the target page, and the anchor text used to make the connection.
This report draws on Ahrefs' broader web crawl, the same crawler that finds backlinks across the internet generally. That's useful for a wide view, but it isn't always the most current picture of a specific site's structure.
Site Audit's Internal Link Data
Site Audit works differently. Rather than relying on the general web crawl, it runs a dedicated crawl of one website, following every internal link it can reach through navigation, footers, and body content.
Teams commonly report that Site Audit surfaces internal linking issues, like orphan pages or broken links, that the Site Explorer view misses simply because its crawl hasn't revisited that page recently.
Neither report is wrong. They're built for different purposes, and using both tends to give a more complete picture than relying on just one.
How Ahrefs Finds Internal Links on a Site
The mechanics are fairly straightforward. Ahrefs' crawler visits known URLs, reads the HTML for hyperlinks, records which pages connect to which, and follows new links it discovers along the way. That's how it builds a map of a site's internal structure over time.
Limits on What the Crawler Can See
No crawler catches everything, and Ahrefs is no exception. Pages blocked by robots.txt won't show up.
Links buried inside complex JavaScript can be missed unless Ahrefs' crawler renders that JavaScript, which it's capable of doing but doesn't guarantee catching every instance.
Recently published pages may simply not have been crawled yet. So the internal link count in a report is a close approximation, not a perfect real-time count of what a search engine sees.
Checking Internal Links in Ahrefs Step by Step
The process itself is short:
- Log in to Ahrefs and open Site Explorer.
- Enter the domain, or a specific page URL if you only care about one page's internal support.
- Open the Internal Backlinks report to see which pages link to it.
- Review the source page, target page, and anchor text for each row.
- Switch to Site Audit and run a crawl for a fuller, site-wide view.
- Use Site Audit's findings to spot orphan pages or broken internal links.
In practice, most people start with Site Explorer to check one important page, then move to Site Audit once they suspect a broader structural problem.
What Teams Use Internal Link Reports For
A few recurring reasons people pull these reports:
- Finding orphan pages that receive no internal links at all
- Catching broken internal links that quietly waste crawl budget
- Spotting pages that are under-linked relative to their importance
- Reviewing anchor text patterns across a site for consistency
None of this is exotic. It's routine maintenance, the kind that gets skipped until a page underperforms for no obvious reason and someone finally checks the internal link data.
Internal Links and URL Rating
Ahrefs' URL Rating (UR) score is influenced by internal link equity distribution, along with backlinks.
The general idea, according to Wikipedia's explanation of PageRank, the concept UR loosely descends from, is that authority flows through links, including the ones between a site's own pages.
A page with very few internal links pointing to it, even a strong one, may carry less UR than a weaker page that's linked from several high-authority sections of the same site.
What isn't publicly detailed is the exact weighting Ahrefs applies. That part of the algorithm is proprietary, and any claim beyond "internal links play a role" would be speculation rather than fact.
Do Internal Links Count as Backlinks in Ahrefs?
No, and this is worth stating plainly because it's a common point of confusion. Backlink reports in Ahrefs only reflect links from other domains. Internal links are recorded, but kept in their own reports.
|
Feature |
Backlinks |
Internal Links |
|
Source |
External websites |
Same website |
|
Primary function |
Authority and trust signal |
Site structure and navigation |
|
Where it appears in Ahrefs |
Backlink reports |
Internal Backlinks / Site Audit reports |
|
Discovery method |
Global web crawl |
Global crawl plus dedicated site crawl |
Common Practices Around Internal Linking
Most SEO practitioners treat a few habits as standard, even if none of them guarantee a ranking outcome on their own:
- Using descriptive anchor text instead of vague phrases
- Linking newer content to established, higher-authority pages
- Fixing orphan pages once they're identified
- Rechecking internal link reports periodically, since site structure shifts as content gets added or removed
Whether any single change moves rankings depends on the page, the site, and a dozen other factors that are hard to isolate. Internal linking is generally treated as supportive groundwork, not a guaranteed fix.
Conclusion
Ahrefs internal links are tracked separately from backlinks, mainly through Site Explorer's Internal Backlinks report and Site Audit's crawl data. Together, they help identify orphan pages, broken links, and structural gaps worth fixing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Ahrefs show internal backlinks for every page?
Mostly, yes, for pages its crawler has already discovered. A page that hasn't been crawled yet, or was only recently published, may not show internal link data immediately.
How often does Ahrefs update internal link data?
It updates whenever the crawler revisits a site. Larger or more frequently visited sites tend to get recrawled more often than smaller ones.
Can internal links influence URL Rating in Ahrefs?
Yes, internal links contribute to how link equity is distributed across a site, which factors into URL Rating. Backlinks still carry more weight overall.
Why does the internal link count change between reports?
Counts shift after new crawls, when pages are added or removed, or when a site's structure gets reorganized. It isn't necessarily a data error.
Is there a free way to check internal links without Ahrefs?
Google Search Console shows internal link counts for indexed pages at no cost, though with less detail than Ahrefs' Site Audit and Site Explorer reports provide.
