Pages Have Excessive Internal Links

Why it matters

Excessive internal links dilute the value (link equity) each link passes, making it harder for important pages to rank well. Large mega-menus can also overwhelm users and search engines, reducing crawl efficiency and potentially causing important pages to be overlooked.

Impact

Leaving this unresolved can weaken the SEO performance of key pages and reduce overall site crawlability.

How it's detected

An automated crawler counts the number of internal links on each page and flags those exceeding a set threshold (e.g., 250 links).

Common causes

• Overly large mega-menus in navigation
• Sitewide navigation including every category or product
• Unfiltered tag or archive links displayed on all pages
• Footer sections with exhaustive link lists
• Automated link generation without limits

How to fix it

Code examples

<nav>
  <ul>
    <li><a href="/cat1">Category 1</a></li>
    <li><a href="/cat2">Category 2</a></li>
    <!-- ... hundreds more ... -->
    <li><a href="/cat250">Category 250</a></li>
  </ul>
</nav>

<nav>
  <ul>
    <li><a href="/cat1">Category 1</a></li>
    <li><a href="/cat2">Category 2</a></li>
    <li><a href="/cat3">Category 3</a></li>
    <!-- Only key categories remain -->
  </ul>
</nav>
<footer>
  <details>
    <summary>All Categories</summary>
    <ul>
      <li><a href="/cat4">Category 4</a></li>
      <!-- ... other less important links ... -->
    </ul>
  </details>
</footer>

FAQ