Internal links are one of the most impactful SEO factors you have full control over. Unlike external backlinks, which depend on other sites linking to you, internal links are entirely in your hands.
Every piece of content you publish adds a new node to your site’s internal network. Over time, that network of internal links becomes broader and more coherent, directly contributing to better rankings.
I think of internal linking as the foundation that ties technical SEO and On-Page SEO together. Internal links don’t carry the same weight as external backlinks, but their cumulative impact on rankings is too significant to ignore.
An incorrect internal linking structure can significantly harm your site’s ranking and hinder improvement in organic search results. Getting this right is one of the easiest wins in SEO.
Below, I’ll cover what internal links are, why they matter, how to approach them from an SEO perspective, and six linking strategies you can implement based on the nature of your site.
What Are Internal Links and Why Are They Important?
An internal link points to another page within the same domain. A link on example.com/about that points to example.com/contact is an internal link. A link pointing to othersite.com is an outbound link.
Internal links pass “power” (ranking value) and context through anchor text and the text surrounding that link.
Internal links can be absolute or relative. An absolute link displays the full URL along with the protocol and domain.
Choosing the right permalink structure is also important for internal linking.
A relative link omits the protocol and domain, so the browser (and search engine bots) assumes the current domain. In markup, the two types look like this:
Absolute link:
<a href="http://example.com/about-us">Anchor Text</a>Relative link:
<a href="/about-us">Anchor Text</a>Menus, header, footer, and breadcrumbs typically contain internal links only, forming the hierarchical structure of the site.
These navigation links guide users from the homepage to category pages, then to individual posts, and back again.
The rest of this post focuses on links appearing within the main content of your pages, not in the navigation menu, sidebar, or footer.
We call these contextual internal links, and they serve several purposes…
The Purpose and Importance of Internal Links
Let’s try to answer the question “what is the purpose of internal links” in several points:
- They enhance the user experience by connecting to additional essential information relevant to the page’s content.
- They distribute ranking power among internal pages on the site.
- They allow the promotion of paid services or products relevant to the audience arriving at the page.
- They improve the ranking of specific keywords.
- They help Google and search engines to crawl the site more efficiently.
- They assist users in navigating the site.
Internal links have a dual effect. They improve engagement metrics – time on site, page views, conversion rates – and they help search engines understand your content hierarchy.
Those engagement improvements feed back into rankings. Better user signals lead to better positions, which lead to more organic traffic.
Internal Links – Important Guidelines
Before jumping into strategies, let’s cover the fundamentals. These are the baseline rules every site should follow:
A. Maintain a Relatively Flat Site Structure
The ideal scenario is that each page on your site should be accessible to the user within 2-3 clicks from the homepage.
Users expect fast, frictionless navigation. Make it easy for them to reach any page quickly.
In complex websites, you can achieve this by using breadcrumbs, tag clouds, and a convenient internal search option.
The image below shows how many clicks it takes to reach each page on a blog. None of them require more than 3 clicks.
The largest green point (homepage) represents 0 clicks, and the smallest blue point represents 3 clicks.
B. Ensure that All Important Pages are Linked
Search engines rely on XML Sitemap and internal links to discover pages. Pages with no incoming links (orphan pages) may still appear in the sitemap, but users have no way to find them by browsing.
For visitors who don’t arrive through organic search, orphan pages don’t exist.
Fix this by either linking to orphan pages from relevant content or deleting them if they serve no purpose.
Exceptions to this rule are landing pages created for pay-per-click campaigns. These pages usually behave as independent areas on the site that are not linked from the main content and are often blocked from indexing.
An optimal site structure generally ensures that all important pages are linked, and it takes no more than 3 clicks to reach the deepest level of the site.
An example of a non-optimal internal link structure is when there are orphan pages and no consistent internal link pattern.
C. Maintain a Reasonable Number of Links on Each Page
But what is the reasonable number of links? There are no strict rules here beyond the fact that you should always consider the user experience.
If the links contribute to the user experience in the end, there’s no reason not to present even hundreds of links on a particular page.
From an SEO perspective, the more links on a page, the less Link Equity each one passes. To concentrate equity on priority pages, keep the total number of outbound links reasonable.
Should You Add Nofollow to Internal Links?
There is no reason to add NoFollow to internal links. Since 2019, Google treats nofollow, sponsored, and ugc as hints rather than directives. This behavior has not changed since and is now universally adopted across all major search engines.
The link equity from a nofollowed internal link simply evaporates rather than being redistributed. “PageRank sculpting” through nofollow stopped working in 2009. Reserve nofollow only for links pointing to pages that bots cannot access, such as login or admin areas.
For more information about NoFollow links and the different link attributes, refer to the post on NoFollow links and their value in SEO strategies and the post on Nofollow, Sponsored, and UGC link attributes.
D. Write Natural Anchor Texts but Use Keywords
Relevant keywords in anchor text help search engines understand what the linked page is about. It’s a free, simple way to reinforce a topic’s relevance.
Don’t mislead users, though. Anchor text should be natural and clearly describe the destination page. Add keywords where they fit, but keep the text contextual.
One detail worth knowing: if multiple links on the same page point to the same URL, search engines prioritize the anchor text of the first link. Make sure that first link carries the right keywords.
E. Add Links in the Main Content of the Site
Links that appear in the main content of the page (contextual links) have higher SEO value compared to navigation links appearing in the header, footer, or sidebar.
Google sees in-content links as editorial endorsements – you chose to link because it adds value for the reader. That makes them carry more weight than templated navigation links. While every case is different, tests consistently confirm this pattern.
Note that the specific context around a certain link (context) appearing in the main content of the page has a positive impact on the ranking of the page to which the link points.
F. Consider Adding Additional Article Elements at the Bottom of Each Post
An element of related articles (Related Posts) will automatically increase the number of internal links in your blog/site. In addition to reducing the bounce rate on your site, these internal links pass value (Link Equity) to other relevant posts on your site.
G. Don’t Go Overboard with Affiliate Links
If your site is based on affiliate marketing, you’ll probably want to add affiliate links to various pages. However, don’t overdo it.
Too many affiliate links on a page can be interpreted as a spam attempt by search engines, which could negatively affect your SEO efforts.
H. Use the Right Tools to Check Broken Links
Regularly checking your site for broken links is crucial. Pages that return a 404 error page due to a broken link have no value and can negatively affect your site’s performance in the search results.
Tools like Screaming Frog, Google Search Console, and SEO plugins like Rank Math can identify broken links. When you find them, either update the URL or set up a 301 redirect to preserve the link equity.
Google Search Console’s “Links” report also shows which pages have the most internal links, helping you spot pages that need more linking.
Make auditing internal links a regular part of your SEO maintenance routine. Broken links waste link equity and create a poor user experience. Pages returning a 404 error pass no value and can negatively affect your site’s overall performance in search results.
Internal Links and Topical Authority
In recent years, search engines have shifted from evaluating individual pages in isolation to assessing your site’s overall expertise on a topic. This concept is known as topical authority, and internal links are the primary mechanism through which you establish it.
The dominant content architecture for building topical authority is the pillar-cluster model (also called hub-and-spoke). It works like this:
- A pillar page is a comprehensive resource targeting a broad core topic.
- Cluster pages are focused articles covering specific subtopics, questions, and use cases.
- Internal links connect these pages bidirectionally – from pillar to cluster, cluster back to pillar, and between related cluster pages.
This structure tells Google your site covers a topic comprehensively. It’s a key factor in how E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) is evaluated.
Sites using well-structured content clusters consistently see stronger, more durable rankings than sites with isolated, unconnected posts.
Internal links are the mechanism through which you tell search engines: “These pages are related, and together they demonstrate that this site is an authority on this topic.”
The practical takeaway is simple: when you publish a new post, don’t just link forward from it. Go back to existing relevant posts and add links to the new content as well.
This bidirectional linking strengthens the entire cluster.
Internal Linking Strategies for Better Rankings
There are many internal linking strategies, but from my experience, these six have the biggest impact on rankings. Pick one or combine several based on the nature of your site.
1. Link from High Traffic Pages to Conversion Pages
Many businesses run a blog with useful information for users in their field. Many of them do it successfully, and their posts generate high, relevant traffic.
However, blog posts are typically not designed to convert. Why not channel those users from high-traffic posts to landing pages that have been optimized specifically for conversions?
2. Link High Value Pages to Low Value Pages
Say you have a blog with strong content that already attracts backlinks from other sites. Those posts carry authority.
You can channel some of that authority to pages sitting on page 2 of Google – the ones that are close to ranking well but need a push.
In the professional language, these pages are called “low-hanging fruit pages.” From an SEO perspective, the term “low-hanging fruits” refers to changes and improvements that can be easily implemented but contribute significantly to the ranking. Like ripe and tasty fruits hanging low on the tree, right within your reach… 🙂
3. Links for Ranking Main Pages for High Search Volume Phrases
This approach works when your site targets competitive, high-volume phrases like “buying cheap shoes.” The homepage is typically optimized for these broad terms.
Other pages on the site serve as supporting content. They provide value to users but aren’t intended to rank for the main phrase themselves.
Most contextual internal links from these supporting pages should point to the homepage. Use the target keywords in the anchor text, with natural variations and synonyms to avoid over-optimization.
The result is a structure where the homepage receives far more internal links than any category or post page:
4. Create an Internal Link Structure Targeting Medium Search Volume Phrases
Here you focus on medium-volume phrases – more specific terms like “buying Adidas shoes.” These phrases typically map to product categories on e-commerce sites or topic categories on blogs.
Category pages get the highest priority. Most contextual internal links should point to them, with consistent anchor text. Keep those categories one click away from the homepage.
5. Targeting Low Search Volume Key-phrases with Internal Links
Instead of chasing high-volume phrases, you target many long-tail keywords with lower individual search volumes. These usually map to individual blog posts or specific product pages.
Most contextual internal links point to other pages at the same hierarchy level – linking between posts within the same topic cluster.
6. Stay Natural – Add Natural Internal Links for the Reader
Skip the spreadsheets. Don’t obsess over link counts or exact-match anchor text. Instead, use common sense – if a link genuinely helps the reader, add it.
Follow the guidelines from the “Important Guidelines” section above and trust your judgment.
This approach works particularly well when combined with the pillar-cluster model described earlier. By consistently writing about related topics and linking between them naturally, you build topical authority without any forced optimization.
FAQs
Common questions about internal links and their impact on SEO:
Summary
Internal links are one of the most impactful SEO factors that you have full control over. An incorrect internal linking structure negatively affects user experience and hinders search engine ranking improvement.
On the other hand, a well-planned structure distributes ranking power, helps search engines crawl your site efficiently, and builds the topical authority that modern search algorithms reward.
The key principles are straightforward: keep a flat site structure (2-3 clicks to any page), make sure all important pages are linked, use descriptive anchor text with relevant keywords, and place links in the main content where they add genuine value.
Whether you choose a specific strategy from those outlined above or simply link naturally between related content, the goal is the same – create a coherent network of interconnected pages that serves both users and search engines.
