Internal links are the links you control completely: menu items, buttons, breadcrumbs, “related posts”, and the links you write into your own content. They point from one page on your domain to another page on the same domain.
They’re also one of the few SEO levers that cost nothing but time.
What they do
Help people. A visitor reading Brightside Dental’s post on “what to do about a cracked tooth” is one link away from the emergency dentist page and its phone number. Without that link, they have to go hunting.
Help discovery. Googlebot finds pages by following links. A page with no internal links (an orphan page) is found slowly, if at all.
Show importance. Pages that many other pages link to look more important. Internal links also pass link equity, so a page with strong backlinks, such as a popular guide, can share some of that strength with service pages it links to.
Explain relationships. The words used in a link, the anchor text, tell Google what the target page is about. Links between closely related pages help define a topic cluster.
Good practice
- Link from relevant pages, in the body text, where a reader would genuinely want to go next.
- Use descriptive anchors: “emergency dental appointments”, not “click here”.
- Keep important pages within three clicks of the homepage.
- Link to the final URL, not one that redirects.
- When you publish a new page, go back to two or three older related pages and add a link to it.
Example
<p>If the crack goes below the gum line, you'll need an
<a href="/emergency-dentist/">emergency dental appointment</a> the same day.</p>Common mistakes
- Navigation-only linking. Menu links count, but contextual links in content carry more meaning.
- Exact-match anchors on every link. Vary the wording naturally.
- Nofollow on internal links. It stops the link passing signals within your own site and has no benefit.
- Links built with JavaScript click handlers instead of real
<a href>tags, which search engines can’t follow. - Dozens of links per paragraph, which dilutes their value and annoys readers.
How to check
RankThat’s Opportunities view suggests internal links between related pages. Site Audit flags pages with too few internal links, links pointing at redirects, broken internal links and links search engines can’t follow.