Internal linking means connecting pages on your own site through anchor text. Done properly it spreads ranking authority to the pages that need it, helps Google understand what each page is about, and keeps visitors reading instead of leaving after one article. Most sites either skip this entirely or scatter links with no plan behind them, wasting the opportunity either way. What works is treating internal links as part of the site’s structure, not something added once the writing is done.
I have seen a site lift organic traffic by close to 40 percent in six months purely by restructuring how its pages linked to one another, without a single word of content changing. Search engines follow links to discover and rank content, so if your strongest pages sit several clicks from the homepage with nothing pointing at them, you are making the job harder than it needs to be. This matters before you even ask why search engine optimisation matters for your business, because internal linking is the part most people overlook.
Why internal links carry weight
Every link on a page passes a small amount of value to the page it points at, in a similar way to how backlinks from other sites help you. The difference is you control internal links completely.
If you offer SEO services to clients, this is usually the first thing worth auditing. Most sites have two or three strong pages carrying everything while newer, equally useful pages sit with almost no internal links pointing to them.
Mistakes that undo the benefit
A handful of habits show up again and again.
- Linking to the same page or two from every single post, regardless of relevance
- Using vague anchor text such as click here instead of a descriptive phrase
- Leaving genuinely useful pages orphaned with nothing pointing to them
- Cramming so many links onto one page that none of them carry much weight
Anyone starting from scratch should read our SEO School 101 guide first, then review which SEO techniques should be avoided, since some link shortcuts do more harm than good.
A structure that holds up
Group related content into clusters. Pick a strong page on a broad subject, such as a PPC marketing agency service page, and treat it as the hub. Every related blog post links back to that hub, and the hub links out to the supporting posts. This is often called a hub and spoke model, and it mirrors how someone actually browses a topic they care about.
| Link type | Purpose | Typical anchor |
| Hub to spoke | Sends authority to supporting posts | Descriptive topic phrase |
| Spoke to hub | Signals the main service page as priority | Core service term |
| Spoke to spoke | Keeps readers moving across topics | Related term |
| Footer or nav | Distributes weight sitewide | Brand or category term |
Anchor text still matters
Google reads anchor text as a signal of what the destination page covers, so vague phrases waste the opportunity. If pointing towards a Google Ads agency in London page, use anchor text close to what people actually type into Google, not what reads well mid sentence. The same applies whether linking to LinkedIn advertising, a Facebook ads agency, or a social media advertising agency page. Match the anchor to the search term, not the mood of the paragraph.
I would also point readers towards your own Google Ads training content where relevant, since not every visitor is ready to buy, and a training resource keeps them on your site.
Keep auditing it
Search Console has an internal linking report most people never open, covered in our piece on using Search Console for SEO. Alongside that, keep an eye on which SEO metrics matter, since indexed pages and crawl stats show whether Google is finding your newer content. Pages get added and hub pages shift as services change, the same issue flagged in our guide on SEO for e-commerce stores. A quarterly review, even a rough one, catches broken and orphaned pages before they cost you rankings.
Google’s own guidance on how crawlable links work is worth a read for the technical detail.
FAQs
Does internal linking affect rankings?
Yes. It is one of the few ranking factors entirely within your control, and Google has confirmed internal links help it discover and understand pages.
How many internal links should a blog post have?
There is no fixed rule, but a common guide is one relevant link for roughly every 100 words.
If your site’s internal links have not been looked at properly in a while, it is worth having someone audit the structure before you write another word of content. Get in touch and we will show you exactly where your linking is leaking value.
