Help:What links here
Within the Toolbox section on the left-hand side of every page is a link labeled "What links here". This is used to see a list of the pages that link to (or redirect to, or transclude) the current page. These are sometimes referred to as backlinks.
It is also possible to make a wikilink to the "What links here" list for a particular page; to do this type [[Special:WhatLinksHere/Page name]], replacing Page name with the title of the target page. (The same text – without the brackets – can also be entered in the search box, to access "What links here" for any page title.)
Overview
It is possible to limit the search to pages in a specified namespace. To see this information, click the "What links here" link while looking at any page. The list is sorted by page ID, i.e., by date of creation of the page.
The list of links to a page is useful in a number of ways:
- The number of incoming links gives a rough indication of how important or popular a page is.
- Where the intended subject material of an article is unclear, the list of articles linking to it might provide useful context.
- It facilitates proper disambiguation.
To invoke a "What links here" list directly (in the search box, browser address bar, or wikilinks) use the syntax Special:WhatLinksHere/Main Page (replacing "Main Page" with the desired target page title).
Redirects
The backlinks feature shows which backlinks are redirects. The backlinks of the redirect are also shown, and if they include a redirect, the backlinks of that also (not more). This makes it a useful tool for finding double redirects, which should generally be replaced by redirects to the final target. There are options to filter the backlinks table to hide redirects, or to show only redirects (by hiding links and transclusions).
Transclusions
The backlinks list includes transclusions of the current page.
It also includes links which exist on certain pages due to the transclusion of other pages (templates). For example, if page A contains a transclusion of template B, and B contains a link to C (not contained within <noinclude> tags), then the link to C will appear on page A, and A will be listed among the backlinks of C.
It is possible that pages may contain links to C as a result of the transclusion of a template even though the template does not itself contain such links (the links may be produced in the template wikitext by the application of various parser functions, rather than explicitly). In this case the template will not show up in the backlinks of C, although pages on which it is transcluded will (if they have the links to C). It may be convenient to make the template appear on the list by placing a link to C on the template, within <noinclude> tags.
Note
The text in this page is adapted from Help:What links here .
