Do useful pages have enough internal links?
It checks sparse outgoing links and widespread pages with a single observed incoming link.
What Check Engine measures
At least 5 pages with readable content are needed. A page other than the homepage with at most 2 outgoing internal links can be flagged as sparse. Below the root, a page other than the homepage with exactly 1 incoming internal link joins the weak-link group. That group is reported only above a 0.3 share of readable pages and with enough crawl coverage to judge links. Incoming and outgoing links are checked separately. For example, a page with exactly 2 outgoing internal links can enter the sparse-link group.
The check reads pages with usable content and the internal links observed by the crawl. Missing coverage can prevent a finding. Review which sections were crawled before adding site-wide links.
How to read the result
Sparse outgoing links are low severity. Widespread single-inlink pages are medium. A count alone does not tell you whether a link is relevant, so adding unrelated links merely to increase the total would miss the page's purpose.
Why it matters
Outgoing links and incoming links describe different routes through a site. A page can link to plenty of content while being difficult to discover from elsewhere, which explains why the code checks both directions.
How to fix it
Review the affected page in its section. Add useful contextual links to related information and link important pages from places where visitors expect to find them. Repair obsolete destinations before adding more links. If the graph is incomplete, improve coverage before treating an apparent lack of incoming links as a confirmed structural problem.
Internal link equity, measured
What we found in field audits
Problems in Links were found on 14 of the 14 sites we audited. These are area totals. Read the field-audit method.
Method note
backend/seo_engine/checks/links.py, internal_linking, revision 0bb8e8d3.
Common questions
How few outgoing links make a page sparse in this audit?
A non-homepage can qualify with 2 outgoing internal links or fewer. Add useful routes rather than unrelated links.
How many readable pages does the internal-link volume check need?
The comparison starts with at least 5 pages that have readable content. Insufficient graph coverage can withhold incoming-link claims.
Are widespread single-inlink pages treated like sparse outgoing links?
No. The sparse-link result has low severity. A widespread single-inlink pattern can receive medium severity when coverage supports the claim.