Free tool
Internal linking checklist
Sixteen checks for the links between your pages, grouped into navigation, links in content, hubs and maintenance. Tick what is already true; the rest becomes a to-do list you can download.
Ticking and downloading need JavaScript; the sixteen checks also work as a printed list.
Work through the checklist
Tick what is already true for your site. The count updates as you go, and you can download the items still open as a text to-do list. Nothing is saved when you leave the page.
How to use the checklist
Work through the four groups with your site open in another tab. Tick an item only when it is true across the site, not just on the pages you looked at first. The counter shows how many items you have ticked. When you are done, the download button saves the unticked items as a plain-text to-do list, grouped the same way. Nothing is saved when you leave the page, so download before you close it.
Why each group matters
Navigation. Menus, breadcrumbs and footers carry links on every page, so mistakes there repeat everywhere. Under WCAG 2.2 (criterion 3.2.3) repeated navigation stays in a stable order, which helps everyone and matters a great deal to people who use screen magnifiers or screen readers and learn a page by its layout.
Links in content. These links carry the most meaning, because they appear exactly where a reader is thinking about a topic. Google's guidance asks for anchor text that is "descriptive, reasonably concise, and relevant" and notes that its crawler follows only <a> elements that carry an href. A link hidden in a script may be invisible to crawlers and awkward for keyboard users.
Hubs and related links. A hub page gives a topic a single front door. Detailed pages then link back to it, and sideways to each other where it helps. WCAG 2.4.5 Multiple Ways lists "providing links to navigate to related web pages" among the techniques that give people more than one route to a page.
Maintenance. Links decay. Pages are renamed, merged and retired, and every change leaves links behind. Redirects catch some of them, but Google's site move guidance points out that redirects slow visits down, so internal links should point straight at the final address.
How to check the maintenance items
You do not need expensive software to run a basic check. A desktop crawler (some offer free tiers; check current terms) will follow your links from the home page and list:
- pages that return errors,
- links that pass through one or more redirects,
- pages in your sitemap that the crawl never reached, which are your orphan pages.
Run it after any large content change and at least twice a year.
Doing it without JavaScript
The checklist works as a printed list too. Copy the sixteen items from this page into a document or spreadsheet, add a column for "done" and a column for "owner", and work through them as a team.
What the checklist does not cover
The checklist looks at how pages connect, not at whether each page deserves links. If a page is outdated or thin, linking to it sends more people to a poor answer. Pair the checklist with a content review. It also does not cover links from other websites to yours, which are a separate subject.
A worked illustration
Next steps
The internal linking guide explains the reasoning in more depth, with examples of good and weak link text. If your checklist shows a lot of open items on a large site, an internal linking strategy produces a full link plan and editor rules.
Privacy
The checklist runs in your browser. Your ticks are not sent or stored anywhere.
Sources checked 4 November 2026 for internal linking checklist
- Multiple Ways (2.4.5), W3C
- Site moves, Google
- Links, Google
- Consistent Navigation (3.2.3), W3C
Next steps: Internal linking checklist
Send us the file it produced.