You have written good pages, given them clear titles, headings and URLs. But how do Google and your visitors actually find their way from one page to another? Beginners often ask me: "What is internal linking, and how many links should I add?"
Internal links are one of the few SEO tools that are fully in your control. You don't need anyone's permission, and they cost nothing. In this lesson, I will explain what internal links do, how to write good link text, how to find pages that have no links pointing to them, and how to build a simple linking plan for your site.
This lesson follows the one on SEO-friendly URLs. Your URLs are the addresses. Internal links are the roads between them.
What is an internal link?
An internal link is a link from one page on your website to another page on the same website. A link to a different website is called an external link. A link from another website to yours is called a backlink, which you will learn about in the lesson on what backlinks are.
Internal links appear in different places:
- Navigation menus at the top of every page
- Footer links at the bottom
- Breadcrumbs, the small trail like "Home › Services › SEO"
- Contextual links, which sit inside the main text of a page, like the links in this lesson
In code, a normal link looks like this:
<a href="/apple-storage-tips/">how to store apples so they stay crisp</a>The href part is the address. The words between the tags are the anchor text, the clickable words people see. We will come back to anchor text shortly, because it matters a lot.
Why do internal links matter for SEO?
Internal links do three jobs at once. Let me explain each with a simple picture: think of your website as a city, your pages as buildings and your links as roads.
They help Google discover your pages
Google finds most new pages by following links from pages it already knows, as you learned in the lesson on how search engines work. A building with no road to it is very hard to find. Google's link best practices say every page you care about should have a link from at least one other page on your site.
They give Google context
The words you use in a link tell Google what the linked page is about. Google's SEO Starter Guide says link text tells users and Google something about the page you are linking to. If ten pages on your site link to one page with words like "apple cold storage," that is a clear hint about its topic.
They show which pages are important
Pages that get many internal links, especially from your home page and main menus, look more important within your site. Links also pass some value from page to page, often called link equity. Our post on how authority flows through links explains that idea in more depth.
And of course, internal links help people. A reader who finishes one page and finds a helpful link to the next step stays longer and learns more. This whole course is built that way.
How do you write good anchor text?
Anchor text is the clickable text of a link. Google's link guidance says good anchor text is descriptive, reasonably concise and relevant to the page it is on. Here is how I would put that into practice:
- Describe the destination. A reader should know what they will get before they click.
- Avoid generic words like "click here," "read more" or "this page." Google specifically suggests avoiding them. A good test: read only the link text. Does it tell you what the target page is?
- Keep it short. A few words or a short phrase is enough. Don't link a whole paragraph.
- Don't stuff keywords. Google warns against cramming every keyword into link text, and says keyword stuffing goes against its spam policies.
- Give the link context. The words around a link matter too. Avoid placing many links side by side with no sentence around them.
- For image links, use alt text. When an image is a link, Google uses the image's alt text as the anchor text. You will learn alt text in the next lesson.
| Weak anchor text | Better anchor text | Why |
|---|---|---|
| To learn more, click here. | Read our guide to storing apples at home. | Says what the page is |
| Read more | See our pricing for monthly SEO | Specific and useful |
| best SEO agency cheap SEO services SEO company India | our SEO services | No keyword stuffing |
| Check out this amazing article I wrote last year about the different kinds of apples and how you can tell them apart in the market | Check out how to tell apple varieties apart | Concise |
| A link with no text (empty icon) | An icon with descriptive alt text, or a text label | Gives Google something to read |
One more tip: you don't have to use the exact same anchor text every time you link to a page. Natural variety is normal. "Our apple storage guide," "how to store apples" and "keeping apples fresh" can all point to the same page. Our blog post on anchor text types goes deeper.
Can Google follow your links?
A link only helps if Google can follow it. Google's link guidance says Google can generally crawl a link only if it is an <a> element with an href attribute that points to a real web address.
Most website builders create proper links automatically. Problems usually come from custom code, such as buttons that change the page with JavaScript but have no real link behind them. If your site uses fancy menus or "load more" buttons, ask your developer to check that each important page is reachable through a normal <a href> link. The lesson on JavaScript SEO covers this in more detail.
Also, don't add nofollow to your own internal links. Google's guidance says to use nofollow when you don't trust a source. You trust your own pages, so let Google follow those links normally.
Hub pages, orphan pages and how many links to use
Build hub pages for your main topics
A hub page (also called a pillar page) is a page that covers a broad topic and links out to more detailed pages on each part of it. Those detailed pages link back to the hub and to each other where it makes sense. This is how you build a topic cluster, which you learned in the lesson on topic clusters and pillar pages.
Here is an invented example for a fruit shop:
- Hub: "Himachal apples guide"
- Linked detail pages: "Apple varieties explained," "How to store apples," "When is apple season in Himachal?," "Apple recipes"
- Each detail page links back to the hub, and the product category page links to the varieties page
Find and fix orphan pages
An orphan page is a page with no internal links pointing to it. It's like a building with no roads. Visitors can't click their way to it, and Google may struggle to find it or may see it as unimportant. Orphan pages often appear when someone publishes a page but forgets to link it from anywhere, or when a menu changes. Our post on how to find and fix orphan pages walks through the tools.
How many internal links should a page have?
Google's guidance says there is no ideal number of links per page, though if a page seems to have too many, it probably does. In practice, I suggest you link whenever it genuinely helps the reader take a next step or understand a term. A long guide will naturally have more links than a short product page. Don't add links just to hit a number.
How to build internal links, step by step
Here is the simple process I would follow on any site:
- List your most important pages. Usually your main services, top products and best guides. These should get the most internal links.
- Make sure they are in your menu or reachable from it within a few clicks of the home page.
- Find related pages. For each important page, search your own site on Google with
site:yourdomain.com topicto find other pages that mention the same topic. - Add contextual links from those related pages to the important page, using descriptive anchor text in a natural sentence.
- Link new pages on publish day. Every time you publish, add at least two or three links to it from older, related pages. This simple habit prevents orphan pages.
- Fix broken links. When a page is deleted or moved, update the links that point to it. Broken links waste a visitor's click.
- Review once or twice a year. Run a simple audit to find orphans, broken links and pages with very few links.
Try it: give your best page five new internal links
This exercise takes about 30 minutes and can make a real difference to an important page.
- Pick one page you most want to rank, such as your main service page.
- Check its current links in Google Search Console. Open the Links report and look at "Top linked pages" under internal links to see how many internal links it already has. If you haven't set up Search Console yet, skip this and go to step 3.
- Search your site with
site:yourdomain.complus the page's main topic to find five related pages. - Add one natural link from each of those five pages to your target page, using descriptive anchor text that varies a little each time.
- Read each sentence aloud. If the link feels forced, rewrite the sentence or choose a different page.
To understand the report used in step 2, see our post on the Search Console Links report. For a full site review, follow our internal link audit guide.
Questions beginners ask about internal linking
Do links in the menu and footer count?
Yes, they are internal links and Google can follow them. But contextual links inside your main content add more meaning, because the words around them explain why the pages are related. Our post on footer links and SEO covers the footer side.
Can I use the same anchor text for different pages?
Try not to. If "SEO services" links to three different pages, both readers and Google get mixed signals. Keep each important anchor phrase pointing to one page.
Should internal links open in a new tab?
Usually no. Internal links normally open in the same tab, which is what most visitors expect. It doesn't change how Google treats the link.
Is it bad to link to the same page twice from one article?
It isn't harmful, but it is rarely needed. Link where it helps most, usually the first natural mention, and move on.
How internal links hold your site together, and the next lesson
Internal links help Google discover your pages, understand what they are about and see which ones matter most. Use crawlable links with short, descriptive anchor text, build hub pages for your main topics, link every new page from older ones and fix orphan pages. There is no magic number of links. Just link wherever it truly helps the reader.
In the next lesson, we cover image SEO: alt text, file names and speed, including how alt text works as anchor text for image links.
If your site has grown messy and you'd like help with a linking plan, our team can do it as part of on-page optimization, or you can ask for a free quote.