Editing Help:What links here (section)

==Overview==
The "What links here" facility lists the pages on the same site (English Wikipedia) which link to (or [[WP:Redirect|redirect]] to, or [[WP:Transclusion|transclude]]) a given page. It is possible to limit the search to pages in a specified [[WP:Namespace|namespace]]. To see this information, click the "What links here" link (or shortcut {{key press|Alt|Shift|j}}) while looking at any page. The list is sorted by page ID, i.e., by date of creation of the page.

This information comes from the [[mw:pagelinks table|pagelinks table]] and the [[mw:templatelinks table|templatelinks table]]. Pages redirected to the given page are marked "redirect". Pages transcluding the given page are marked "transclusion"; for these pages, it is not shown whether they also ''link'' to the given page. For image and other file pages, the pages using the image or file appear on the list and are marked "image link". 

The parser function [[:mw:Help:Extension:ParserFunctions##ifexist|#ifexist:]] causes a listing in "What links here" among the normal links, even though no link is produced.

The list of links to an article 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 [[Wikipedia:Disambiguation|disambiguation]].

The function works even for a page title that does not exist (recording [[WP:Redlink|redlinks]] to that title). The "What links here" link appears on the edit page on which one arrives when following a broken link. Thus, for example, if film articles are linked to the actors, one can find the films an actor has played in even if there is no article about the actor. 

To invoke a "What links here" list directly (in the search box, browser address bar, or wikilinks) use the syntax [[Special:WhatLinksHere/John Smith]] (replacing "John Smith" with the desired target article title).