Internal linking: how to build it sensibly

What internal links are for

• Visitors find related content.
• Search engines discover and understand pages.
• Important pages gain more weight.

Principles

• Every page is reachable: there are no “orphaned” pages without a link.
• Descriptive link text: “More on local SEO” rather than “click here”.
• Flat structure: important pages are reachable from the home page in a few clicks.
• Topic clusters: one main page on the topic, with detail pages beneath it that link to each other and to the main page.

How to proceed

1. List all pages and sort them into topics.
2. Decide on the main page for each topic.
3. Link from detail pages to the main page and to related pages.
4. Find orphaned pages and connect them.

A worked example

Suppose a photography studio has a page called “Wedding photography” and six guide articles on it, for example on the schedule, prices and choosing a venue. So far the articles only appear in a blog overview, and the service page links to none of them. A better structure:

• Each article links to the service page at a suitable point in the body text, with link text such as “Wedding photography at a glance”.
• The service page leads to all six articles in a section called “Further guides”.
• Related articles refer to each other, for example “Schedule” to “Prices”.

This creates a cluster: the service page is clearly the main page, and every detail page can be reached in two clicks.

Link text: good and bad

• Weak: “here”, “more”, “click on this link”.
• Better: “Prices for wedding photography”, if the target page is about that.
• Too mechanical: the same link text with an identical search term on every page. Vary it naturally, as long as the target stays clear.

Where links belong and where they don’t

Links in the body text, placed where they help the reader, are usually worth more than a long list of links in the footer. The menu reflects the main structure and should stay slim: putting every subpage in the main menu blurs the orientation. Breadcrumb navigation (“Home › Guides › Article”) also shows the position and automatically connects each page with the pages above it.

How to find orphaned pages

Compare the list of pages in your sitemap with the pages a crawler reaches via links. Anything that is in the sitemap but not found is orphaned. Common crawling programs can check this. Then add links from pages that fit the topic, rather than a blanket link from the home page.

Maintenance

Internal links go out of date. If a page is deleted or moved, the links should be updated or a 301 redirect set up, otherwise visitors end up on error pages. With every new article, plan two to three links to existing pages straight away, and at least one link from an existing page to the new article.

A decision aid: how many links are enough?

There is no fixed number. As a rule of thumb, every link must give the reader added value at that point. A long article can take more links than a short service page. While reading, check whether a follow-up question arises at some point that another page answers; that is exactly where the link belongs. Ten links in the same paragraph, on the other hand, are more likely to distract.

Common mistakes

Too many links on one page, always the same link text, and links that lead to error pages.