📖 Quick Summary
Tool: Screaming Frog SEO Spider
Difficulty: Beginner
Reading Time: 6 minutes
Business Impact: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Links Explained
Links are the pathways that connect pages together across your website and the internet. They help users navigate your content while allowing search engines to discover, crawl and understand the relationships between pages.
A well-structured linking strategy improves crawlability, distributes authority throughout your website and strengthens your overall SEO performance. Broken or poorly managed links, however, create a poor user experience and reduce crawl efficiency.
Internal Links
What this means
Internal Links connect one page on your website to another page on the same website.
Why this matters to the business
Strong internal linking helps visitors discover more content, distributes SEO authority across your website and assists search engines in understanding your site’s structure.
How Growth Architect AI identifies this
By analysing every internal hyperlink discovered during the Screaming Frog SEO Spider crawl.
What to do about it
Add relevant internal links between related pages to improve navigation and strengthen your website’s overall architecture.
Related terms
Inlinks • Outlinks • Orphan Page
External Links
What this means
External Links point from your website to another website.
Why this matters to the business
Linking to trusted, authoritative sources can improve user experience and provide additional context for your content.
How Growth Architect AI identifies this
By analysing hyperlinks that point to domains outside your own website.
What to do about it
Ensure external links remain relevant, trustworthy and functional.
Related terms
Broken Links • Outlinks
Inlinks
What this means
Inlinks are the number of internal links pointing to a specific page.
Why this matters to the business
Pages with more relevant internal links are generally easier for users and search engines to discover.
How Growth Architect AI identifies this
By counting every internal link pointing to each page during the crawl.
What to do about it
Increase internal links to important pages that should receive greater visibility.
Related terms
Internal Links • Orphan Page
Outlinks
What this means
Outlinks are links that point from a page to other pages or websites.
Why this matters to the business
Outlinks help distribute authority, improve navigation and provide users with additional relevant resources.
How Growth Architect AI identifies this
By analysing every hyperlink found on each page.
What to do about it
Review outlinks regularly and remove outdated or unnecessary links.
Related terms
Internal Links • External Links
Broken Links
What this means
A Broken Link points to a destination that no longer exists or returns an error.
Why this matters to the business
Broken links create poor user experiences, reduce trust and waste crawl budget.
How Growth Architect AI identifies this
By checking the HTTP response returned for every linked URL.
What to do about it
Repair, replace or remove broken links as soon as possible.
Related terms
404 Not Found • Redirect Chain
Redirect Chain
What this means
A Redirect Chain occurs when one URL redirects to another, which redirects again before reaching the final destination.
Why this matters to the business
Redirect chains slow crawling, increase page loading times and reduce crawl efficiency.
How Growth Architect AI identifies this
By tracing every redirect path discovered during the crawl.
What to do about it
Update links so they point directly to the final destination.
Related terms
Redirect Loop • Broken Links
Redirect Loop
What this means
A Redirect Loop occurs when redirects continuously point back to one another, preventing users and search engines from reaching the destination page.
Why this matters to the business
Redirect loops make pages inaccessible and prevent search engines from crawling content.
How Growth Architect AI identifies this
By following redirect paths and detecting circular references.
What to do about it
Correct the redirect configuration so every redirect resolves successfully.
Related terms
Redirect Chain • HTTP Status Codes
Orphan Page
What this means
An Orphan Page exists on your website but has no internal links pointing to it.
Why this matters to the business
If users and search engines cannot easily discover a page, it is unlikely to generate meaningful traffic, leads or revenue.
How Growth Architect AI identifies this
By comparing Screaming Frog crawl data with Google Search Console URLs and analysing internal linking relationships.
What to do about it
Add relevant internal links from related pages so both users and search engines can easily discover the content.
Related terms
Internal Links • Inlinks
Why Growth Architect AI analyses Links
Growth Architect AI doesn’t simply count links. It analyses how authority flows throughout your website, identifies broken navigation paths, uncovers orphan pages and highlights opportunities to strengthen internal linking. By combining Screaming Frog crawl data with Google Search Console and Google Analytics 4 insights, Growth Architect AI helps transform your website into a stronger, more connected SEO ecosystem.