Internal linking is one of the most underrated SEO tools. Many businesses spend thousands of pounds on link building, ignoring the free resource that already exists on their website. At the same time, the right internal structure can have a comparable effect to dozens of external links.
I have seen projects where simply reorganising internal links resulted in a 40-60% increase in organic traffic in a few months. No new content, no link building — just the right structure.
Contents
What is internal linking and why is it important?
Main functions of internal links
- Each page has a certain ‘rating’ (PageRank)
- Internal links transfer part of this rating
- Proper distribution strengthens important pages
- Googlebot finds new pages through links
- The more links to a page, the more often it is crawled
- Orphan pages (without links) may not be indexed
- The link structure shows which pages are most important
- Google understands the thematic connections between pages
- This affects ranking
- Users find the content they need more easily
- Bounce rate decreases
- Time spent on the site increases
Different types of links have different SEO weight:
- Highest SEO weight
- Transfer maximum Link Equity
- Most natural for users
- Average SEO weight
- Present on all pages
- Important for the site structure
- Lower SEO weight
- Often ignored by crawlers
- Useful for UX
- Average SEO weight
- Work well for blogs
- Display related content
- Average SEO weight
- Important for structure
- Improve UX
Hub-and-Spoke Model (Topic Clusters)
- Covers a broad topic
- Contains 2,000-5,000 words
- Links to all cluster pages
- Gathers maximum Link Equity
- They reveal subtopics in detail
- They link to the pillar page
- They link to each other
- They have a narrower focus
- ‘SEO for Beginners: The Basics of Search Engine Optimisation’
- ‘PPC Advertising: How to Set Up Google Ads’
- ‘SMM Strategy: Promotion on Social Media’
- ‘Email marketing: from database collection to automation’
- ‘Content marketing: how to create content that sells’
- ‘Analytics: how to measure marketing effectiveness’
- The pillar page links to each cluster page
- Each cluster page links to the pillar page
- Cluster pages link to each other (where relevant)
- The pillar page is no more than two clicks away from the home page
Practical rules for internal linking
Anchor Text (link text)
Correct anchor text is critically important:
- Good: ‘learn more about Google Ads settings’
- Bad: ‘click here’
- Good: ‘email marketing strategy’
- Bad: ‘this article’
- Do not use identical anchors
- Vary the wording
- Add branded and generic anchors
- Exact match: ‘internal linking’
- Partial match: ‘how to do internal linking on a website’
- Branded: ‘Guild of Marketing methodology’
- Generic: ‘more about this’
- Recommended number per page: 3-10 contextual links
- Maximum: up to 100 links per page (including navigation)
- Rule: better to have fewer high-quality links than many irrelevant ones
- Home page: 0 clicks
- Categories/Pillar pages: 1-2 clicks
- Products/Cluster pages: 2-3 clicks
- Products/Cluster pages: 2-3 clicks
- Maximum for any page: 4 clicks
- Only link to thematically related pages
- The link should be useful to the reader
- Avoid links for the sake of links
Common mistakes in internal linking
- Google may not find them
- They do not receive Link Equity
- They are often not indexed
- Loss of Link Equity
- Deterioration of UX
- Negative signal for Google
- User ‘gets stuck’
- High bounce rate
- Lost link potential
- Rarely crawled
- Receive little Link Equity
- Rank worse
- Over-optimised (100% exact match)
- Non-informative (‘here’, ‘more details’)
- Irrelevant to the landing page
Internal linking audit
- Screaming Frog — crawling and link analysis
- Ahrefs Site Audit — problem detection
- Google Search Console — crawling errors
- Sitebulb — structure visualisation
- Number of internal links to each page
- Orphan pages
- Broken links
- Effectiveness of new content
- Click depth for important pages
- Anchor profile
- Link Equity distribution
- Identify pillar pages for each topic
- Group cluster pages around pillars
- Plan links between clusters
- Identify priority pages
- Create an implementation plan
Implementation of the relinking strategy
- Website crawling (Screaming Frog)
- Identification of orphan pages
- Detection of broken links
- Analysis of click depth
- Defining pillar pages
- Grouping cluster pages
- Creating a link map
- Prioritising by importance
- Adding links to pillar pages
- Cluster page interlinking
- Anchor text optimisation
- Fixing broken links
- Position tracking
- Crawling analysis in GSC
- Regular audit of new pages
FAQ
How many internal links should there be on a page?
The recommended number of contextual links is 3-10 per page. The total number (including navigation) should not exceed 100. The main thing is relevance and usefulness for the reader, not quantity for the sake of quantity.
What are Topic Clusters and how do you create them?
Topic Clusters is a content organisation model where a central pillar page covers a broad topic and links to cluster pages with subtopics. Cluster pages link back to the pillar and to each other. This increases thematic authority and improves ranking.
How to find orphan pages on a website?
Use Screaming Frog or Ahrefs Site Audit to crawl the site. The tools will show pages with zero internal links. Also, check Google Search Console for indexed pages and compare them with the site structure.
Does anchor text in internal links affect SEO?
Yes, anchor text in internal links affects the ranking of the target page. Google uses it to understand the topic of the page. Use descriptive anchors with keywords, but avoid over-optimisation — vary the wording.
What is the optimal click depth for important pages?
Important commercial pages should be accessible within 2-3 clicks from the home page. Pillar pages should be accessible within 1-2 clicks. Pages deeper than 4 clicks receive less Link Equity and are crawled less frequently, which negatively affects ranking.
