How to Analyze Internal Link Depth Across Your Site
To analyze internal link depth, evaluate how many clicks it takes to reach important content from your homepage. Use tools like Screaming Frog or Sitebulb to crawl your website and identify pages buried too deep. Optimizing internal link depth improves SEO and user experience.
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Key Takaways
Frequently Asked Questions
What is internal link depth?
Search engines are more likely to crawl and rank pages that are closer to the homepage. Pages with high link depth may get ignored or indexed slowly.
Why does link depth matter for SEO?
Search engines are more likely to crawl and rank pages that are closer to the homepage. Pages with high link depth may get ignored or indexed slowly.
How deep is too deep?
Generally, if a page is more than 3 clicks away from the homepage, it is considered too deep and may lose visibility.
What tools can help with link depth analysis?
Popular tools include Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, Ahrefs, and DeepCrawl. They offer link depth reports and visualizations.
How can I reduce link depth?
Add internal links from higher-authority pages, ensure strong category structures, and optimize your navigation and footer menus.
Step by Step Plan
Crawl Your Site
Start by using a crawler tool like Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, or Ahrefs Site Audit to analyze your entire site structure and assign link depth levels.
Identify Depth Distribution
Generate a link depth chart to see how your pages are distributed by depth (e.g., depth 1, 2, 3+). This helps pinpoint buried content.
Locate Strategic Pages
Highlight high-priority pages (such as top-converting or informational SEO pages) that are nested too deep and suffering in traffic.
Locate Strategic Pages
Improve accessibility by linking to deep pages from higher-level pages, navigations, or in-content CTAs on popular posts.
Re-crawl and Monitor
Re-run your site audit to confirm improvements. Regularly monitor for new content slipping into higher link depth.
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