Internal Linking
The practice of linking to other pages on the same website.
Detailed Explanation
Internal links help users navigate the site, but they also spread 'link juice' (authority) between pages and help search engines discover new content. A strong internal linking strategy (like linking related glossary terms to each other) builds a 'web' of topical authority and keeps users on the site longer.
Quick Summary
Internal linking is connecting your own pages to each other with hyperlinks. It does three jobs: helps users navigate, spreads PageRank from authoritative pages to newer ones, and signals topical relationships to Google. It's the single most underused SEO lever, it's free and entirely within your control.
Key Takeaways
- Descriptive anchor text matters, `<a href="/jwt">JSON Web Tokens</a>` beats `<a href="/jwt">click here</a>`.
- Link new content from established, authoritative pages to accelerate indexing.
- Build topic clusters: a pillar page that links to 10-20 supporting subtopic pages.
- Avoid orphan pages, every important page should have at least one internal link.
- Don't over-link, 3-10 contextual links per article is the sweet spot.
When to use it
- Glossary cross-linking, related terms reinforce each cluster.
- Blog-to-product links pass authority to commercial pages.
- Documentation hubs that link out to detailed reference pages.
- Boosting underperforming pages by linking from top-traffic pages.
Common Mistakes
- Using 'click here' or 'read more' as anchor text, wasted SEO signal.
- Linking only from blog → blog and never from blog → product.
- Forgetting to link new content from old top-performing pages.
- Excessive site-wide links in footer/sidebar, diluted signal.
- Broken internal links, kills crawl efficiency and user trust.
Internal Linking, Frequently Asked
How many internal links per page?
Roughly 3-10 contextual links within the article. Google's official guidance is 'reasonable', they used to cap at 100 but that's no longer enforced.
Should I use `nofollow` on internal links?
Generally no, you want PageRank to flow within your own site. Reserve `nofollow` for user-generated content and untrusted links.
What's a topic cluster?
A pillar page covering a broad topic, linked to and from many supporting pages covering subtopics. Signals to Google you have deep coverage of the topic.