The essentials
- Definition: internal linking is the set of links between the pages of one site; it guides Google's crawling, passes on authority and indicates the relative importance of pages.
- The principle: the pages receiving the most internal links, from pages that are themselves well linked, with descriptive anchors, are the ones Google judges important.
- The most under-used free lever: no dependence on third-party sites, with a measurable effect within weeks.
- Audit: click depth, orphan pages, distribution of links, anchors, using a crawler.
The aim of Internal linking means the links connecting a site's pages to each other: the menu, the breadcrumb, links in the text, "related articles" blocks, the footer. It is the most accessible SEO lever, because it depends only on you, and one of the most neglected: most small business sites have strategic pages connected by a single menu link and orphan articles. This article gives the rules, the audit method and the fixes.
What internal links pass on
- Discovery: Google crawls the site by following links; a page with no inbound link (an orphan) is found only through the sitemap and rarely crawled.
- Authority: the PageRank flows through links, internal ones included. A home page receiving backlinks redistributes its authority to the pages it links.
- Relevance: the anchor text ("full SEO audit") tells Google the target page's subject.
- Hierarchy: the most-linked pages are read as the most important; that is what makes a service page rank rather than a blog article on the same query.
- The user journey: a contextual link in the right place extends the visit and leads to conversion.
The eight rules
| # | Rule | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Every strategic page is reachable in 3 clicks from the home page | Depth reduces crawling and the authority passed on |
| 2 | No orphan pages | A page with no inbound link is almost never crawled or ranked |
| 3 | Anchors describe the target page | "Learn more" passes nothing on; "structuring your local pages" passes on the subject |
| 4 | Links in the body text outweigh those in the menu and the footer | Google weights contextual links more than template links |
| 5 | Each page links to its parent, its siblings and its children (a silo) | Concentrates authority by theme; see the topic cluster |
| 6 | The pages receiving backlinks link to the pages you want to lift | Redistributes external authority where it pays |
| 7 | One target per intent | Two pages linked with the same anchor cannibalise each other |
| 8 | Links in plain HTML, with no internal nofollow and no redirect | A JavaScript link or one to a redirected URL loses part of its effect |
Auditing a site's internal linking
- Crawl the site with a Screaming Frog (free up to 500 URLs): export for each page its click depth, its number of internal inbound links ("Inlinks") and outbound links, and the anchors.
- Spot the orphans: compare the URLs in the sitemap or Search Console with those found by the crawl. URLs present in Search Console but absent from the crawl are orphans.
- Cross-reference with value: list your strategic pages (services, categories, local pages, high-potential guides) and look at their number of inbound links and their depth. A service page with 2 inbound links and 4 clicks of depth is the typical problem.
- Analyse the anchors: do the links to a strategic page carry descriptive, varied anchors, or only "click here" and the menu label?
- Identify the strong pages: in Search Console (the Links report) or a backlink tool, the pages receiving the most external links; they are the best sources of internal links.
- Check the technical side: links to 404s, redirect chains, JavaScript links, internal nofollows; see HTTP response codes.
Fixing it: the actions in order of return
| Action | Effect | Effort |
|---|---|---|
| Add contextual links from the strong pages (home, articles with backlinks) to the strategic pages | Strong, in 2 to 6 weeks | Poor |
| Link the blog articles to the service pages they prepare, with a descriptive anchor | Strong on the service pages | Poor |
| Bring the strategic pages within 3 clicks (menu, home page blocks, categories) | Strong | Moderate |
| Add a "related articles" or "read next" block that is coherent by theme | Medium, steady | Low if automated |
| Fix broken and redirected links | Moderate | Poor |
| Reorganise into silos (categories, subcategories, URLs) | Strong in the long run | High, with redirects |
For a small business site of 50 to 300 pages, the first row of the table is often enough to move the rankings: 3 to 5 well-placed contextual links to each service page, from the most visited and best-linked pages.
Mistakes to avoid
- A footer with 60 links: it dilutes authority, and Google takes little account of it.
- Exact anchors repeated identically across the site: prefer natural variations.
- Automatic links on every occurrence of a word: unreadable, and several links to the same target in one text add nothing to the first.
- Linking only to the home page: that is the page that needs it least.
- "Hub" pages with no content that exist only to link: Google treats them as thin pages.
Measuring the effect
Note the date of your changes and track, in Search Console, the impressions and average position of the target pages over 8 weeks, along with their crawl frequency (the Crawl stats report). Positions generally move between the second and the sixth week. The tracking method is described in tracking your SEO rankings, and internal linking fits into the full SEO audit.
How GreenRed helps
Rather than juggling several tools, GreenRed's SEO module brings these metrics together in a single dashboard, compares them over time and tells you which actions come first. You can try it free, with no card, from the Pricing.
Frequently asked questions
How many internal links per page?
There is no optimal number. Allow 3 to 10 contextual links in a 1,000-word article, placed where they help the reader, plus the navigation links. Beyond 100 links on a page, Google weights each one less; that is the case with overloaded footers and mega-menus.
Can internal linking replace backlinks?
No. Internal linking redistributes the authority the site already has; backlinks increase it. A site with no external links won't rise on internal linking alone. But a site with backlinks and poor internal linking wastes its authority, and that is the most frequent case.
Should you use nofollow on internal links?
No. Internal nofollow doesn't save authority, it loses it. Reserve it for sponsored or uncontrolled outbound links. For pages with no SEO interest (legal notices, login), leave the links dofollow and handle indexing with noindex if needed.
Is an automatic linking plugin a good idea?
With caution. Plugins that link every occurrence of a word produce identical anchors and out-of-context links. A "related articles" block chosen by theme, or a list of links written into the body text, gives better results. Automation suits end-of-article blocks, not links within the text.