Internal links are links from one page of your website to another. They're one of the few SEO levers you fully control, they cost nothing, and most small business websites barely use them.
Why internal links matter
- Discovery: Google finds pages by following links. Pages with no internal links (orphan pages) may never be crawled.
- Importance: pages that receive more internal links look more important.
- Relevance: the link's anchor text tells Google what the target page is about.
- Ranking power: links pass value from strong pages, such as your homepage or a popular blog post, to the pages you want to rank.
- Users: good links help visitors find what they need and move towards enquiring.
The basic structure
Think of your website as a pyramid:
- Homepage at the top, linking to main sections
- Main service or category pages below
- Individual services, locations, products and blog posts at the bottom
Every important page should be reachable within three clicks from the homepage.
Link from strong pages to money pages
Find your pages with the most links and traffic. In Search Console, look at Links, Top linked pages and the Performance report. Then add links from those pages to the service and product pages you want to rank.
A blog post that gets 2,000 visits a month should link to the relevant service page.
Use topic clusters
Group related content:
- A main guide on a topic
- Supporting posts that each cover one sub-question
- All supporting posts link to the main guide and the related service page
- The main guide links back to each supporting post
This structure shows depth and spreads value around the cluster. See blog strategy for small businesses.
Write descriptive anchor text
The clickable text should describe the destination:
- ✅ "see our local SEO service"
- ✅ "read our Google Business Profile guide"
- ❌ "click here"
- ❌ "read more"
Vary it naturally. You don't need exact-match keywords every time, and forcing them reads badly.
Where to place links
- In the body content: contextual links within paragraphs carry the most weight
- Related posts at the end of articles
- Breadcrumbs on every page
- Navigation and footer: for your most important pages only. Don't put 100 links in the footer.
How many links?
There's no magic number. Add links where they genuinely help the reader. A 1,500-word article might naturally have 5 to 10 internal links.
Find orphan pages
Orphan pages have no internal links pointing to them. To find them:
- Export all URLs from your XML sitemap
- Crawl your site with a tool like Screaming Frog, following links from the homepage
- Any URL in the sitemap but not found in the crawl is an orphan
Then link to it from relevant pages, or remove it if it's no longer useful.
Fix broken internal links
Links to deleted or moved pages waste crawling and frustrate visitors. Crawl your site regularly and update or redirect broken links.
A quick routine for every new page
When you publish a new page or post:
- Link from it to 2 to 5 relevant existing pages
- Link to it from 2 to 3 existing relevant pages
- Add it to the relevant category or hub page
Every post on this blog links to related guides and to the service it relates to. Want your site structure reviewed? It's part of our SEO audit.